The Story of Claire and Quil
by DuskitMermaid
Summary: Claire and Quil's story as Claire grows up, involving the dramas of anything a teenage girl growing up around so-called mythical creatures with unreasonable parents can think of. Written in both perspectives.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**QPOV**

"I don't see why I got dragged into this, and Jacob gets to spend a perfectly good day sulking in his garage over his best friend who just happens to be 'ignoring' him..." I grumbled, following after Embry.

"Shut up. Jake's going through a tough time at the moment...the Cullens coming back wasn't a treat for any of us. Besides, Sam wanted the whole pack here today...he's feeling sorry for Jake." Embry said, walking just a step in front of me.

I rolled my eyes. "It's just a lunch! We can eat later at a restaraunt or something...sure, it won't taste as good as Emily's food, but at least we'll get to run around, phased for a while to start with."

Embry sighed, but didn't say anything else. I knew he didn't like the fact that he was a gigantic wolf nearly as much as I did. I had the most fun with it out of all of us. There was nothing that mattered to me more than being in my animal form and flat out running.

"So who's actually going to be here today?" Paul asked Jared.

Jared cleared his throat and began to repeat the same thing he'd said to me, Embry and Jacob, the traitor, yesterday. "Emily invited her brother and his wife and daughter to lunch...and Seth and Leah will probably show up, too, seeing as Emily's their cousin." His voice took on a hint of regret when he said Seth and Leah's name.

It would have been hard enough when their father died not that long ago...worse when they had both phased for the first time, getting help from the grief of it. Yeah, both of them. No one knew why Leah had, but she was the only girl that had ever been brought into this wonderful life the others called a curse.

I flopped onto Emily's sofa while the others made their way into the kitchen to meet the other part of her family they hadn't yet.

"Quil?" Embry's voice called back to me after a couple of minutes. He ran around the corner and narrowed his eyes when he saw me on the couch. "C'mon, everyone's wondering where you are."

"Naw, I think I'm just going to sit here and watch TV until Sam says it's okay for me to go and run around again..."

"Aw, but you _have_ to come and meet Emily's niece, she's so cute!" Embry said, adored.

I flicked through the channels. "How old is she?"

"Two."

I smirked. "That's not the 'cute' I go for..."

Embry frowned. "Quil, if you only want to be in this family for the food, I'm sure Sam won't have any problem kicking you out...which means you won't be eating it, anyway. Live through this like the rest of us."

I scrunched my nose at him, then pulled myself up, off the couch. "Whatever...are they in the kitchen?"

He nodded and led the way.

"This is Quil." he told the man and woman sitting at the table.

"Hey," I said, politely offering my hand to both of them. They smiled and shook it in turn, introducing themselves, but I wasn't really paying attention.

"...and this is Claire." The woman said, readjusting the baby on her lap. I looked at her for the first time and my eyes widened.

'Cute' didn't even begin to sum her up. She was _gorgeous_. I sucked in a quick breath, feeling everything I'd ever stressed over become a pointless little waste of time. Everything I'd ever considered pretty suddenly looked like a gray blob. There was nothing in the world compared to _her. _I couldn't believe I'd been walking around for two years without knowing this little girl.

"Uhh...Quil?" Paul waved his hand in front of my face. I smiled serenely at the child.

"She's beautiful." I told her parents, not looking away from her.

Sam stood from the table in my peripheral vision. "Oh my God! Quil!"

"Huh?" I asked, still smiling at Claire.

"Can I see you outside for a minute?" he asked me, his voice getting a little louder.

I frowned without looking at him. "Why?"

"Because there's something important I need to talk to you about." he grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the door. I kept facing Claire until we had turned into the next room and I couldn't see her anymore. I pulled back on Sam's hand and looked through the door to the girl again, smiling at her. "Quil!" he said as soon as we had gotten outside, trying to catch my attention.

"She's the most beautiful thing to ever appear on this planet!" I told him, the words rushing out of my mouth before I had a chance to think them over. "Sam, why didn't you tell me about her?!"

He shook my shoulders. "Quil, you just Imprinted!"

I stared at him closely. "Oh...oh, I understand now." Everything Sam had told me about Emily and how he had felt about her when he had first laid eyes on her clicked in my head. "This is _brilliant!"_

He laughed once and turned toward the house. "Now, I don't want you telling her parents about...our condition, but I know you'll be seeing a lot more of her from now on."

I nodded quickly. "I can keep it from them"

He smiled and pulled me into a quick hug, patting my back. "Congrats, Man."

"Thanks," I said, smiling hugely as we made our way back into Emily's house.

I took my seat next to Jared at the table and watched Claire again. Nothing had ever given me the satisfaction I felt as I looked into her big dark brown eyes. Embry kicked my shin under the table. I looked up at him, annoyed. _'What?!'_ I mouthed.

He raised an eyebrow, and I knew he was asking what was up. I shook my head, grinning widely. _'Later.'_


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter 1**

I pulled up out the front of Claire's house and slammed the door of my old truck behind me. I'd barely started walking up to the front door when it burst open and she ran out, screaming.

"Quil!" she jumped as she reached me, and I caught her and pulled her up into my arms.

"Hey, Claire-bear. How've you been?"

She giggled. "Embwy's pwitty!"

I raised an eyebrow, making her laugh harder and she poked my nose. "Missed yooh." she said.

I smiled and kissed her pudgy cheek. "Missed you, too. Now what's this about Embry?"

She hit the tops of my arms until I put her safetly back on the ground, then she grabbed my fingers. "You hab to see!" She squealed in delight, pulling me toward her house. I watched over her carefully, in case her little feet slipped on the wet path. She was still laughing when we reached her bedroom.

"Where are you, Pwincess Em?" she sung in her high little voice, looking around.

Embry burst out of the closet, making monster noises and Claire screamed loudly and grabbed onto my leg. Embry started tickling her ribs and I laughed with her as she begged him to stop.

"Ah, I'm sorry." he said, lifting her up upside-down. "But you deserved this, you know."

"Didn't!" Claire said, crossing her arms. She was still upside down, and her shirt fell down so we couldn't see her face. I chuckled and grabbed her from him.

"What happened to you?" I asked, sitting her in my arms and looking at Embry.

He was wearing a pink scarf as a dress and what looked like some of Claire's mother's necklaces around his neck. I noticed Claire's play makeup she had gotten from one of her friends at playgroup smeared messily across his face and tried to stop myself from laughing too hard.

"I told Claire we'd do whatever she wanted...and didn't think about the consequences." he said, pretending to glare at her. She giggled and clapped her hands. It made me smile to see her this happy.

"Well, I think you did a good job, Claire-bear." I said, smiling at her from the corner of my eye.

She nodded. "I dink so too."

I laughed with Embry and set her down on my feet.

"Quil, you _ever_ ask me to babysit for you again, and I'm refusing." Embry said, just loud enough for me to hear over Claire's high pitched version of singing.

I smiled. "Well, hopefully I won't be busy next time."

He gave me a sad smile. "She's got you sucked in big time...is it really that good?"

I nodded. "You can't imagine it."

He sighed. "Well, Jacob wants me to start patrol in twenty minutes, and I'm hungry, so I'm going to turn back into a man and leave...see you tomorrow."

"See you." I said, turning my attention back to Claire.

Embry and I were part of a pack of shape shifters that took the form of giant dogs. We'd been turned under the influence of vampires in the local area. Out job was to keep them from eating the human population around the town. The only vampires that actually stuck to the area were the Cullens, and were what we called 'vegetarians', meaning they only drunk the blood of animals, not humans. We were supposed to hate them, and I did on a level, but not because of their attitudes or the jealousy I sometimes felt for how good looking they all were, but because of the way they smelled to my kind. Apparently we smelled that bad to them, as well. I kind of doubted that, though.

Jacob was our pack leader. His grandfather had been the leader of another pack, years ago. We had all been in a different pack about a year ago, run by a guy named Sam. Jacob had split from that pack when Sam had ordered we killed his best friend, Bella, after she became pregnant with one of the vampires from Forks, which was a town close to where we were. He told us the baby'd be a monster and attack anyone who got close, or some load of bull like that. How wrong he'd been...

He'd gotten over the thing with the vamps after a while, though, once it was obvious the hybrid daughter wasn't the least bit dangerous to anyone who didn't possess a threat to her. It would be kind of hard to kill her anyway, as Jacob had Imprinted with her as soon as he'd laid eyes on her, which was how it always worked, I guess.

Imprinting was a wolfy trait that was passed through our genes, but not all of us got to experience the brilliance of it. I was one of the lucky ones who had. I had met Claire through Sam's Imprint, Emily just over two years ago. She was Emily's niece, and only lived about a five minute drive from my house. Once I had looked at her, I couldn't look away. She was like my own little sister. I did everything with her -- anything she wanted to do. I always found her entertainments enjoyable.

I bent down to see what Claire had made out of her new rainbow beads. She invited me to her little table and we sat there for a few hours, decorating the string and comparing them to each other's.

"Mine's bedder." said, grinning as I showed her mine.

I laughed. "Yeah, right. Mine's superb."

"Mine's da bestest." she said sticking out her tongue.

I pretended to be sad and put it on the table. "Well, I guess you win this one, too, then."

"Yerp." she said, giggling loudly.

I laughed with her. I enjoyed spending time with her so much.

"Did you have lunch with Embry?" I asked, tipping the beads off my string and starting again. I picked up the same ones she had used to see if she'd notice.

She shook her head. "I was too bizzy to eat, Quil." she said in a professional voice. "Fings like makeup take time and paishence."

I laughed. That was what Kim had said to her a couple of months ago at a Quileute gathering. "It seems like I have a lot to learn about that."

She patted my hand. "S'okay, Quil. I'll teach yooh."

"Thanks, Claire-bear." I held up the necklace I had coppied from her as she did, too. She grinned, and for a moment I thought she'd worked it out.

"I win aggen, Quil."

"I agree." I said, putting it down on the table. "You getting hungry?"

She nodded and stood up. "Mommy left some food on da counter, and she said we ken warm it up for lunch and dinnah."

"Let's go, then." I said, walking to her bedroom door. She hurried after me and put her tiny hand in mine, making me feel the most complete I could.

I put the food her mother had left us in the microwave and sat at the table while I waited for it to cook.

"So how have your parents been?" I asked. She may not have known much of the dictionary, but I could talk to her a lot more than I could talk to anyone else. Even my pack brothers, who went through much the same thing as me everyday.

"Daddy's been working lots, so I don't see him much, and Mommy sends me to bed when she gets home ebewy night." she rested her head on my arm. "I love yooh the mostest, Quil."

I pulled my fingers throug her thick black hair. "I love you the most, too, Claire-bear."

We ate lunch and sat around the house for a few more hours, watching _Disney_ movies. I wouldn't be found watching them by myself, but Claire loved them, so I enjoyed them, too. We watched _Pocahontas _again, like we did nearly every day. Claire liked to be called Pocahontas when we were watching it. She had been growing her hair all year so she looked like the princess.

"Can I gedda Meeko?" she asked me, hanging off the couch with her feet in the air.

"Uhh...I dunno, Claire, I don't think we're allowed to keep raccoons as pets..."

She sighed. "I won't tell Mommy and Daddy!"

I laughed. "I think you should ask them before you get one, just incase. They'd probably find that like that did your bird."

She laughed a couple of times mischeviously. "Fank yooh for helping me wiv dat one, Quil."

I smiled. "That's okay."

Claire had been out with me once for a walk in the forest. The animals around didn't give the shifters such a wide berth as they did with humans, and one bird had come so close Claire could pick it up. She had named it, brought it home with her and kept it in an old cage in her closet when her parents had been home, but had taken it out and let it fly around her room when it was just me and her. Her mother had gotten home early one day and caught her trying to put it back in the cage, and I'd gotten the blame. I didn't mind, though. It was better me than Claire.

"Whaddo you wanna do now?" she asked me when John Smith had sailed away and the credits had come up. I thought it over.

"Do you wanna go see Nessie? You haven't seen her for a couple of weeks."

She nodded eagerly.

Renesmee Carlie Cullen (aka Nessie -- Jacob's Imprint) had been born last year on the eleventh of September. Jacob had Imprinted on her when he had been about to kill her for killing her mother, who they kept alive with some serious CPR and vampire venom work. He was always with her, making the rest of us become closer with the Cullens than we needed to be. Claire had met Nessie about four months ago at a Quileute gathering, and the two of them were best friends. I could tell Nessie put up with a lot of the things Claire did out of politeness; she aged a lot quicker than the average girl.

I helped her into my truck and we pulled out of her driveway, talking about the little things no one would care about.

"Has Nessie been asking about me?" she asked me excitedly as we pulled up out the front of Jacob's new apartment.

I shrugged. "I haven't seen her for a week or so, but last time I did, she asked me how you were going."

Claire laughed and waited for me to get her out of the truck when I had stopped it.

I let Claire knock on the door. She always wanted to.

"Oh, Quil, Claire!" Nessie herself was the one to answer. She looked about five years old on this particular day. She talked as if she were in her teens. "Come in, I'm just about to make sandwiches."

"We already ate." Claire said, reaching up to hug her friend. Nessie smiled and picked her up, giving her a tight hug. It looked unusual, how tiny Nessie was and how easily she picked up a girl that reached her shoulder. She carried her into the living room and playfully dumped her on the couch.

"How've you been, Claire-bear?" she asked her, using the nickname I had given Claire when she was three.

Claire giggled and sat up. "I'b been good. Embry minded me dis morning. I dressed him up in my makeup and a dress."

Nessie laughed with her and walked into Jacob's kitchen, pulling a stool up to the counter so she could reach the bread. "Jacob?"

Jake ran down the stairs as quickly as if she was screaming. "Yeah? Oh, hey." he said, smiling and walking over to greet me and Claire. "Did Embry start patrol?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he left when I got back to Claire's house this morning."

"He dressed up like a girl." Nessie said quietly from the kitchen as she cut up some cheese. Jacob looked over his shoulder at her.

"What?"

"I dressed him up like my mommy." Claire said, obviously happy with herself.

Jacob laughed. "And I bet he enjoyed that, didn't he, Claire?"

She gave us her giggle again and nodded.

Jacob and I got into Nessie's sandwiches, and Claire finished half of one and gave me the rest. Nessie sat on Jacob's lap and talked to her as we ate. She preffered her family's diet compared to human food, which Claire couldn't understand.

"Nessie, do you wanna peanut budder sandwich?" Claire asked, holding one out to her.

Nessie shook her head, for the tenth time. "No, thanks, Claire. I'm not hungry."

Claire put the sandwich back on the plate and picked up another one. "There's chicken?"

Nessie laughed and shook her head again. "No, thanks, Claire."

Claire finally stopped when there were no more sandwiches left. She pouted. "Nessie didn't get one."

"I didn't want one Claire, it's okay." Nessie said, picking up the plate and taking it into the kitchen. Claire jumped on Jacob's lap as soon as it was free.

"Jacob, you hab to let me dress you up next time you come ober!" she said, excited already.

Jacob looked at me and Nessie for help, but we only smirked. "Uhh...no, thanks, Claire."

"But Quil and Embry let me do it!" she whined. Jacob laughed.

"Yeah, well, maybe you'll get lucky on your birthday and I'll let you do my makeup like Quil." he reasoned.

She thought it over, her tongue hanging out of her mouth. "Okie dokie." she said after a few seconds of silence.

The three of us laughed, and settled in for a quiet conversation when Claire turned the children's channel on.

I took her home when it was getting dark. She curled up on the seat of my truck and yawned. "Jacob and Nessie lub each ovver lots." she said quietly.

"Yeah...Jacob Imprinted on Nessie." I told her.

"I dunno what dat means..." she trailed off, waiting for me to give her an answer.

I sighed and turned down a street. Imprinting was something I had planned to tell her about when she was a little older. "It's something that us wolves can do...it's like...we see the person, and we love them more than anything else in the whole world. That's what happened with Jacob and Nessie."

"Quil?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, Claire-bear?"

She yawned again. "Don't leab me if you Indink, 'kay?"

I chuckled a few times, and was about to answer, when I heard her soft snoring start. I smiled down at her and carried her inside, warming up my half of dinner while she slept.

When I had finished eating, I walked to her room and sat underneath her hammock, listening to her sleep and wondering what her dreams were about. All of mine involved her.

I had had a fit when her father had brought her that hammock. I was still a little freaked out of the fact that she spent the whole night over a metre off the ground. I'd always taken the cushions off the couches and spare blankets from the linen closet and put them under it, just incase she'd rolled out of it. So far it hadn't been nessecary. Claire wasn't a light sleeper, and she did move while she was dreaming, but she seemed to know when she was about to fall out of the hammock. Her parents had finally allowed me to buy a double matress to push up in the corner of her room, just in case. It was good for if I had to mind her over night, as well.

I'd finally told her about Imprinting. I smiled to myself in the darkness, then I thought more into it. I wanted what she wanted. And I knew that, somewhere in the future, years from now, I wouldn't think of her as I did now. Not like I was her older brother, or second father, or uncle, or whatever she thought I was now. I'd be attracted to her like Sam was to Emily and Jared was to Kim and Paul was to Rachel.

If I wanted her to get what she wanted, I wouldn't want to interfere with her choice in guys when that time came. And if she knew I'd Imprinted with her...she might not end up with the right guy, thinking she was supposed to end up with me. Which she was, but I wanted to give her the chance to choose who she wanted.

I made up my mind after a few minutes. I wasn't going to tell her I'd Imprinted on her. She didn't think I had already. If I could just keep it from her, she'd be able to have a normal teenage girl's life when the time came and pick her partners without feeling guilty about breaking hearts.

But she'd probably figure it out before we got to that stage. There was over a decade until we'd reach it, and Claire wasn't stupid for her age. Maybe she'd just look over it like she did a lot of other things.

I stood up as I heard her parent's car pull into their driveway. They worked at the same business, and on some nights finished at the same time like they had tonight. I stood up and kissed Claire's forehead gently, smiling as the corners of her mouth pulled up.

"Love you, Claire-bear." I said softly.

She nestled into her pillow. "Lub you, Quil." she whispered sleepily.

I almost exploded with happiness. She usually said this as we parted, but I loved hearing it anyway. I closed the door as quietly as I could behind me and met her parents in the living room.

"What'd you to get up to today?" her mother asked me, setting her bag on the table.

I smiled and put my hands in my pockets. "She dressed Em up something nice. Then he left and we had lunch. We watched _Winnie the Pooh_ and...wanna take a guess?"

She smirked. "Would it be..._Pocahontas?_"

"Very good." I joked. "And then we visited Jake and Nessie at his apartment. She fell asleep in my truck on the way over, so she hasn't eaten dinner, but I think she filled up on one of Nessie's sandwiches while we were with them."

"Thanks, Quil." she said, walking into the kitchen to get her husbands and her own dinner.

"That's okay. Uhh...I'd better be leaving now. Do you need me here tomorrow morning?"

"Could you make it at nine?" she asked. "If it's not a hassle, I mean. We could always drop her at Emily and Sam's."

"No, it's fine!" I insisted. "I'll be here at ten to nine. Night, Marylyn."

"Goodnight Quil." she said, smiling as she walked the rest of the way into the kitchen.

I walked past her husband, reclining on the couch while he watched the news.

"Goodnight, Mr. Young." I said, nodding as I walked past him. He grunted, not really saying anything to me.

I was still a little scared of Claire's father. He wasn't about nonsense, and had suggested things about my truck on more than one occasion. And I knew he hated me. I think he thought I was trying to steal his daughter away from him. I wasn't, exactly. I just wanted her to be with me and not him at all times.

I drove home with the windows rolled down, despite the freezing weather of La Push. It was August at the moment, but it was still cold. Every human I had seen today had been wearing sleeves, and it'd been raining. I didn't have to worry about that anymore, though. Once I had phased for the first time, I hadn't been sensitive to the outside temperature anymore. That's another reason I was constantly worrying about Claire. I had no idea how cold she was, so when she was shivering, I was usually carrying her around with me, trying to keep the temperature of her skin warm with my own.

I got back to my own little house after a few minutes and had a shower. I changed into my pajamas and got into bed, hoping Jacob wouldn't ask me to patrol tomorrow. I wanted to spend the whole day with Claire.

**Hey everyone!**

**Yeah, so this is my first FanFic. I think I'll post one chapter a week or something.**

**Please review.**

**Also, if any of you find some mistakes in the text, get back to me. Oh! And if there's a word in there that American people don't use. I've done my best to spell words like Americans do, but I may have gone back to my Aussie self somewhere in here...**

**Yeah, so, I'll see how I go about when to put up the next chapter.**

**Thank you for reading!**

**Chlowie, xo.**


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: The only characters that belong to my pink-headed self are the ones that weren't in the Twilight books, aka Marylyn, Troy and Mick. All others belong to the beautiful Stephenie Meyer, who gave my life, like so many others, meaning.**

**I'm looking for a guy's name. I can't think of any that weren't used in the Twilight books, and I need one for an important character that I'll be bringing in shortly, so if anyone has any ideas, please tell me in a review. And thank you to my gorgeous reviewews; Asha123 and platowasabore from chapter 1. When I read other people's ANs and they said about how happy it made them to get reviews I was like 'that much?!' but then I got my own, and I would like to say yes, that much. YAY! Anyway...**

******************

**Chapter 2**

I squeezed my eyes shut as the irritating buzzing woke me. "Shut up..." I groaned, rolling toward it and snatching my phone off the bench. I slid it open and glanced at the screen. Jacob had sent me a message.

NO PATROL FOR ANYONE TODAY! SAM WANTS EVERYONE AT HIS HOUSE AT FOUR FOR DINNER. YOU CAN BRING CLAIRE.

_Claire..._I smiled, remembering I was going to spend time with just her all day. Well, up until four. Then we'd both have to mingle with the rest of our overly-stretched family.

I checked the time on my phone and bolted upright as I saw I had less than ten minutes left. I kicked the blankets off as quickly as I could, getting my feet caught in them and falling to the floor. I groaned and pulled myself up, kicking my feet until I came free.

I ripped open my closet doors, too roughly. One of them came off the hinges and fell on the ground. I didn't have enough time to groan. I grabbed the first shirt off the rack and a pair of jeans. I was going to have to wear something more formal than my usual every day sweats if we were going to dinner with the others.

I ran out to the truck, still in my pajamas, which were just a pair of loose drawstring pants. I had no patience to wear shirts to bed when I was already under a blanket with a one hundred and nine degree body heat. I looked down as the girl across the road strained her neck to look at me. She kept watching me as I pulled out of the driveway and drove up the street. I gave her a look that wasn't at all polite on my way.

I got to Claire's house, right on nine. "Sorry I'm late." I said to her mother as I walked into the house. She raised her eyebrows at my appearance. "I slept in." I admitted. "Can I use your shower?"

She nodded and opened the screen door. "Do you two have anything planned for today?"

"I was going to ask, actually...could I take her to a dinner at Sam's tonight? He wants everyone from...our age to be there, and Claire was invited, too." I said, scratching the back of my head uncomfortably. I'd never had a conversation with my Imprintee's mother while in nothing but my pajama pants in her living room before. I didn't expect to have my first time of it, either.

"Of course, Quil. You know you're welcome to take her anywhere you want, as long as she's asleep by nine thirty. You always end up taking better care of her than I ever do." she laughed and checked her watch. "Honey?" she called loudly.

Claire's father walked quickly around the corner and gave me a glance as he passed me.

"Morning, Troy." I said politely.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "You, too, Quil...planning on sleeping anytime soon?"

I laughed fakely. "Funny..." I muttered.

Marylyn smiled apologetically once more before walking out the door, closely followed by her husband. I sighed and moved off toward the bathroom, checking Claire on my way.

Once I had had my shower and gotten dressed, I went back to Claire's room and watched her sleep for a few minutes. She looked so pretty when she was sleeping.

I trailed my finger down her little nose slowly, grinning as her eyelids fluttered open. "Good morning, Quil." she said slowly, reaching her arms out.

"Morning, Claire-bear." I said, pulling her out of her hammock in a hug and kissing her hair. "Did you sleep well?"

She nodded against my arm and yawned, wrapping her little arms around my neck. "Did I fall asleep in da truck?"

"Yeah...I didn't want to wake you up."

"Fank you." she said, gripping my wet hair in one of her tiny hands. She noticed what I was wearing. "Where are we going?"

"Sam invited us to dinner...he must be going to announce something." I told her, carrying her into the kitchen.

She took a box of Cheerios from one of the shelves she had to be in my arms to reach. I carried her to the cupboards next and she opened them, taking out two bowls. The cupboard were above the counter, but she still had to reach down because I was too tall. I got the spoons for us from a draw that only reached my thighs and bent down to let her get the milk from the fridge.

I let her prepare the cereal for both of us. She set mine in front of me and we both pushed the Cheerios under the milk for a few seconds before eating them. Claire was still half asleep.

"Are you going to wear something pretty this afternoon?" I asked her.

She nodded slowly. "Is Aunty Emily gonna be der?"

"You know she's always with Sam." I said, already drinking the milk from my bowl.

Her eyebrows pulled together. "Did...Sam...Intint Emily?" she asked, remembering from last night.

I nodded. "Imprint. Yep."

She smiled. "I could tell...dey're always togedder."

"Can you pick who else did?"

She frowned. I felt my pulse quicken. I wouldn't tell her if she didn't pick us.

"Aunty Kim and Uncle Jared..." she looked up and I nodded. "And...Uncle Jake and Nessie?"

"Very good...anyone else?" I asked, tapping my toes against the floor boards.

She sighed and put her head to the table. She snapped it back up, and for a moment I thought she'd gotten it. "Uncle Paul and Aunty Rachel?"

I sighed. "You're a clever one." I said, rinsing my bowl at the sink.

"I know." she sighed, standing from her chair. She started trudging back to her room. "Quil, will you help me pick somefing to wear tonight?"

"Of course, Claire-bear." I said, taking her hand as she led the way down the hall. She stood on her toes and grabbed the handles of her closet, pulling them open. Her closet was full for someone who's parents didn't shop often -- Alice and Rosalie had bought Nessie way too many clothes, and she had grown out of them, so they had all been given to Claire without any arguments. Claire loved Alice and Rosalie forever for that.

She stopped for a moment and looked up at the overwhelming amount of clothes. "I'm confused." she said finally. I laughed and picked her up in my arms again.

"Umm...How about you wear your special dress?" I asked her, pulling the bottom of it out. She blinked at it a couple of times, then nodded.

The dress was long-sleeved, and reached her ankles, so she'd be just as warm as if it were jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. It was black with Green lace tying it at the front like an amatuer corsette. She looked so gorgeous in it.

I helped her with her dress, then picked out a pair of shiny black shoes with little flowers on the side. She pulled them on while I tied up my sneakers that I had in the back of my car, just in case I hadn't been wearing any on patrol and had something to do after it -- I had forgotten to bring some with me.

We decided to take a trip to First Beach before we showed up at Sam's. It was only a street away from it, so we could leave the truck in the beach's parking lot and walk to his house. Claire ran onto the beach and took her shoes off straight away, leaving them by a small tree. I did the same, hoping it wouldn't rain and chased after her, picking her up and swinging her over my shoulders, onto my back.

"Where to, Princess?" I asked, spinning around in circles.

She giggled and grabbed onto my hair. I cringed and stopped, also laughing. "We hab to find..." she paused for dramatic effect. "A secret passageway!"

"Hmm..." I frowned. "And where would that be?"

"Quil, Quil, Quil," she said. I could feel her shaking her head at me and held back another laugh. "We _obbussly_ wouldn't hab to find it if we knew where it was to start wiv..."

"Oh. Sorry, Claire-bear."

"Dat's okay." she said, patting my head gently.

She turned around on my shoulders. "Dat way, Quil!" she said, pointing to my right. I stopped facing the water and walked to the edge of the beach, where there was nothing but a wall of trees and shrubs.

"Uhh...Claire-bear, I don't think we'll be able to get through here..." I told her, already sorry for dissapointing her.

She sighed. "We _hab_ to get in der, or else da monsters are gonna get us!"

I laughed and put my foot into the wall, testing for any weak spots. I was pretending to rush at the same time. Claire's excitement made me feel like I was really running from monsters with her. Finally I found an opening between two thick trees. A few vines and creepers blocked it up, hiding it from anyone looking for it. I lifted them and climbed underneath them, looking around before I let them fall down. It wasn't as dark as I thought it would be with them down; the trees above us opened up to let some of the light from he gray sky through to us.

The opening stretched for about ten metres, then opened up to a tiny little beach that looked as if no one had ever walked on it before. There were pieces of driftwood lining where the water washed up and the forest created a round wall at the back of it. The sand that met the water was pure white.

Claire laughed mischeviously from my back. "I knew we could do it, Quil." she said, patting the tops of my arms so I'd put her back on her feet. She took off, climbing on the bits of driftwood that were big enough and throwing around the little pieces. "This is a magic place, where wundaful fings happen!"

I looked around. "Kind of needs a seat, though."

"We'll build one!" she said, pushing a piece of driftwood to the centre of the clearing. "Out ob dis."

We got to work, piling the driftwood up in the middle of the clearing. I told Claire to make sure she didn't run into the water, reminding her of dinner.

Once we had every bit of driftwood in the middle, we set them up so the big pieces were at the bottom and the smaller ones at the top, making a bench shape out of them. I checked my watch.

"Crap! Claire, we have to go." she ran for me and jumped into my arms. I pulled her up and hugged her. "We'll come back and work on it later." I promised her, squeezing her gently.

She smiled and touched my nose. "Dis is _our_ place. No one elses'. Only ours, okay?"

I nodded and kissed the tip of her nose. "I wouldn't dream of bringing anyone else here. Just you."

She put her arms around my neck and let me carry her from the clearing, looking back at it over my shoulder. "Bye, magic place!" she said as the thick trees and shrubs and vines swallowed us up.

I ran to Sam's house and joined Jacob and Nessie at the door. Claire made me put her on the ground so she could hold my hand like Jacob and Nessie were. The four of us walked into the small house together, smiling at everyone inside.

The first thing I noticed was that everyone here knew about us being shifters. A shock was seeing the Cullens standing near the table. They rarely came to anything the wolves hosted. They had come to a couple of our parties since Jacob had Imprinted the youngest of them, though. None of us were really sure about having them on the Reservation yet, including them themselves. It was against our nature to enjoy spending time with them, though we could have good conversations from time to time. I saw Embry looking up from the table at Rosalie and Emmett gave him a harsh growl.

Seth cracked up laughing when Embry jumped and ended up almost crying on the table.

Nessie took a seat next to her father with Jacob sitting in a chair in front of her. Claire sat herself between him and me, kicking her legs in the air off her chair.

Once everyone who would eating was seated, except for Edward and Rosalie, who were just filling the seats, and a couple more were standing on the outskirts of the room, Sam cleared his throat.

"Uhh...I had something to tell all of you, so I've organised this dinner...also as a way of apologising..." he said uneasily. Emily took his hand and leaned into his shoulder.

Everyone was waiting for what he was going to tell us, but no one said anything. I looked over at Edward; surely he'd know where Sam was going with this, what with his freaky mind reading powers? I could tell he knew what was going on from the look on his face, but it gave me no hint to what _it_ actually was.

"Umm...Emily's pregnant." he said finally.

Everyone started talking at once. "Congrats, guys!" I shouted, smiling at Emily. She was giving everyone a huge smile, obviously very proud.

"Thanks." she shouted over everyone, still smiling.

We all died down again, sensing there was something else. Sam sighed heavily and looked back up at us. "So...Emily's still aging, and I'm not. So long as I keep phasing..."

My eyes widened, and I knew everyone else's would've, as well. He _couldn't..._

"Yeah, I'm becoming a permanent human." he said, smiling around at everyone. "So...I'm handing over my pack to you, Jacob."

Jacob stood from the table and walked to Sam and Emily. "Thanks, man." he said, hugging him quickly. He turned to Emily. "Congratulations, Em."

She released him, still smiling. "So, I've made a massive dinner for everyone to mull over that with...I'll serve it out the back in about half an hour. You can all go out there now for some more room, if you want."

Everyone filed out slowly, still unusually quiet for all of us. We got into the back yard and looked at each other for a while before saying anything. None of us had been expecting _that. _Sam was the first out of all of us in this generation to phase. He'd passed on all the details and helped us get through it and controlled us while we were in his pack. He'd made a lot of our decisions the past few years.

"Didn't see that one coming..." Jared sighed, running his hands through his hair. Kim leaned into his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Now I know why he hasn't been on patrol the last week." Paul muttered, kicking at the ground with his hand in Rachel's. "He obviously didn't want anyone to know about it and go blabbing to everyone else."

Jacob walked into the back yard slowly, taking everyone in.

"Oh, we hail the Alpha!" Jared joked, lightening the mood by raising his hands and bringing them down in front of me. Everyone laughed, except for Jacob.

"Shut up..." he said, putting his arms around Nessie as she lept up and latched her arms around his neck. Emmett laughed again just to annoy him, recieving a pretty nasty glare, which kept him going.

"Jake...everything okay?" Bella asked him hesitantly.

He nodded. "Just a lot to take in in that short amount of time..."

"You _should_ be happy." Renesmee told him from his arms.

"But now I don't get to see you as much." he said, tightening his arms around her.

"So, Jake." Paul said, getting rid of the soppiness by clapping his hands together. "Who's gonne be your new second in command?"

"Seth." Jacob said simply. I held back a laugh at Paul's face.

"But...you can change it now you have all of us."

Jacob nodded slowly. "Yeah, but I'm sticking with Seth. He's been a great Beta all these years." he grinned at Bella, who rolled her eyes.

"Ah, okay." Paul said, stepping back next to Jared. Brady was still snickering at him.

After that the talking started up again. Claire made me promise not to tell anyone about our secret place, telling me that if anyone else were to go there, the magic would go away.

Everyone ate, except for the Cullens, still being their joking around selves. Kim, Rachel, Nessie, Bella and Alice attacked Emily with questions about the baby, not that she could answer any of them. Alice ended up doing her vision thing, and coming out with what date she'd have it, and that it was going to be a boy, but everyone managed to keep that from the parent-to-bes.

By the end of the night, everyone was okay with Sam retiring and happy for the two of them. Nessie fell asleep on Edward's lap at eight, and Jacob took her home. Claire'd been drinking way too many Cokes, and was running around the backyard after Brady and a nineteen year old wolf named Mick, barking at them as if she was a wolf, too. The two of them were laughing too hard to ask her to stop, so they continued to run from her, slow for them, just so she wouldn't feel slow.

"Claire-bear, I have to get you home." I told her once she had sat on the ground and tried to scratch her neck with her foot.

She whined and stood up. "But I'm not tired yet!"

"But it's nine. You need to be asleep in half an hour."

She sighed and walked over to me, lifting her arms up. "Okay...but I'm not happy about dis, Quil."

I laughed and hugged her. "Say bye to everyone."

"See yas!" she shouted, waving. "Confradulazons, Aunty Emily and Uncle Sam!"

They laughed. "Thanks, Claire." Sam said, kissing her forehead. "Night night."

Everyone said goodnight to her and we got in my truck and started our way home.

"Quil?" she asked me quietly on the way.

"Yeah, Claire-bear?"

"Is Emily's baby gonna be reladed to me? 'Cause she is..." she looked up at me from her place.

"Yeah, he's going to be your cousin." I told her.

She smiled. "Like Leah and Emily!"

"Yep." I smiled back with how clever she'd gotten.

She leaned back in the seat. "I think I'm getting a bit tired now..."

**************

**Thank you for reading, anyone who did! If you didn't why are you reading my Author's Note? I promise this story gets better! I should be putting up the next chapter on Monday. Maybe sooner if I get too bored with trying to compose. PLEASE REVIEW! I could really use the happiness...my throat hurts and my nose is blocked and I don't have my singing voice at the moment! :'{**

**Chlowie, xo**


	4. Chapter Three

**Do I need to put a disclaimer at the start of each chapter? Maybe...just in case: I don't own any of the characters or places or anything along those lines that were in the Twilight books, no matter how much I wish I did. Thank you for your time.**

**HEY GUYS!! Okay, this is the third chapter. I hope y'all find it a little less boring than the ones before it. The ones in future will hopefully be even better. Thank you to my reviewer from the seconds chapter, ****lovinedward4eva. It was really great seeing I had another review!**

*******

**Chapter 3**

Claire pushed me out of her room to get changed. I waited in the living room for her, knowing she'd burst out with a million different poses and make me laugh.

I heard Jacob and Nessie coming toward the house and answered the door as they got closer to it. "Hey!"

"Hey," Jacob said back, starting to walk a little faster with Nessie's hand in his. "Where's the birthday girl?"

"She's just getting dressed." I told them, taking the present off Jacob and putting it on the table where the others were.

Claire ran out of the room and spun around in a circle, showing off her new birthday dress. "Ta-da!" she exclaimed to the three of us.

Nessie laughed and bent down to hug her. "Happy fifth birthday, Claire!"

Claire hugged Nessie back and let go of her to hug Jacob. "Thank you!" she said excitedly. I smiled down at her and picked her up.

"That's such a pretty dress." I told her. "Who'd you get that off?"

She laughed and poked my nose. "Silly Quil!"

Nessie, now looking close to being nine, though she was only two, looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"You're the first ones here!" Claire told them, clapping her hands. "You win."

Jacob laughed and walked into the kitchen, testing all the party food. "So what did you two do today?"

Claire and I exchanged a glance. We'd gone back to our secret place today for the second time and finished off the bench we'd been building. We'd made a rule that we were only allowed to go there on special occasions; like Claire's birthday and when I had something to tell her that no one else was allowed to know.

"We went to the park and had a picnic." Claire said, changing our destination.

"Sounds like fun." Nessie smiled as Sam and Emily knocked on the door, little Toby in Emily's arms.

"Happy birthday, Claire." They said together, handing Nessie Toby so they could hug her in turn.

"You're lucky." Sam put her present on the table and held out a side of her dress as he picked her up. "Whoa, what a beautiful dress! And in your favorite color and everything! Who'd you get that from?"

Claire giggled and rested her head on Sam's shoulder, looking at me. "Quil got it for me."

Sam set her back on the ground and walked into the kitchen. "Need help setting up?"

"Yeah, thanks." I said, taking a couple of bowls in my own arms and kicking open the back door. "Just...try to squash it all onto the tables."

Once the two big tables were full of junk food and the things that Emily had cooked earlier, Claire let Nessie help her decorate the trees ringing the backyard with confetti and streamers her mother had left her.

Everyone showed up around three, and Claire got to act like the princess she was. She danced around the backyard, the light yellow of her dress flying out around her. Everyone shut up at her command so she could delight us all with her beautiful voice when songs she knew started playing.

She opened her presents once her parents got home at seven; they'd asked to leave work early so they could celebrate their daughter's birthday with her. Her mother thanked me for the dress that I'd bought her, claiming it must've cost me a fortune. I told her it wasn't a big deal; she didn't have to know I'd been saving for seven months straight and working extra hours at the music shop where I'd been for the last two years.

"Quil, dance with me!" Claire shouted when Alice played her favorite song.

I laughed and picked her up, spinning her round in circles. She screamed and giggled, clapping her hands in the air. Kim pulled Jared out to us and made him dance with her, too.

Within ten minutes, all the Imprints and a few of the vamps were out on the floor, just to make Claire happy. Paul pulled Rachel off after giving Edward a glare for dancing so perfectly with Bella. Rosalie walked off by herself and started talking to Charlie and Sue, of all people, once Emmett had started crumping to a slower song than he should've.

Once we had destroyed all six of her cakes (the Quileute wolves weren't allowed to slow down with their appetite), Claire fell asleep on Jasper's lap with Alice brushing her hair gently. They smiled and let me take her away to her hammock.

No one left straight after I'd put her to bed -- it was only eight thirty. Once her parents had gone to bed I kicked all the others out. I didn't want Claire to be waking up from her dreams from the cause of all of their noise.

*******

"Okay, Claire-bear, so what do you want to do?" I asked her, checking her room to see if it was okay for her.

It was the night before she first started school. She'd begged her parents to let her stay at my house for the night, and I was going to take her in the morning. There were the same rules as usual for when she slept at my house; she had to be asleep by nine thirty, and she had to remember to brush her teeth. Anything else we wanted to do, we could.

Claire had her own room at my apartment. She usually stayed one or two nights a month when I didn't have patrol. I hadn't been doing patrol a lot lately -- what, with all the extra pack members, but I still managed to see everyone just as much. And Claire never got sick of running around with Embry, Seth and me when we were bored and in our wolf forms.

"I'm hungry." she said after a few seconds and what looked like a lot of deciding.

I stood up. "What do you want for dinner?"

She shrugged. "You know what you _haven't_ done for a long time, Quil?"

"Uhh...no...what, Claire-bear?"

"You haven't taken me out for dinner since your birfday last year." she said, pouting a little.

I chuckled a few times as her english faltered a little. Her speech had gotten so much better in the last few months, but she still made a few mistakes from time to time. I was glad -- she was growing up too fast for me. Pretty soon, I wouldn't have my little girl anymore. Her mother seemed slightly sad about it, too, but her father couldn't care less. He was already giving her speeches about dating, and even if they were only jokes, I wished he wouldn't. I was going to keep her from dating for as long as I could. No one would be good enough for my little Claire-bear.

I stopped myself at that thought and mussed her hair. "Okay, we'll go out for dinner...but I should probably put a shirt on first, huh?"

She nodded. "I'll put my shoes on."

"Okay," I laughed, walking into my room and grabbing the shirt I had taken off earlier and left at the foot of my bed. I grabbed my keys off the desk next to my bed and turned off the light behind me. "So where are we going, Claire? A nice, fancy restaraunt?"

She nodded and walked to the front door. I opened it for her and she ran out and pressed the button on the elevator. She shook her head as I went to get in it when it arrived. "I'll beat'cha down." she skipped in and the doors closed.

I laughed and took off for the stairs, which were halfway down the hall. Even though she was miles ahead of me, and was probably getting ready to get out of the elevator, I could still beat her. I took a quick glance around and flew down the stairs, running to the elevator and waiting by the side of it, so she wouldn't be able to see me when she got down.

The doors opened, and I jumped in front of them, shouting "BOO!"

Claire cracked up and almost fell on the floor as I caught sight of an old couple and a business man standing behind her with their eyebrows raised. I blushed and started to laugh, as well. Even though I was completely embarrassed, it was hard to keep my mood down with Claire laughing so hardly. I apoligised quietly to the three people still in the elevator, grabbed Claire around her middle and slung her over my shoulder.

She was still laughing as we stepped out into the cold air. "You...must hab been soooooo ennarrassed!"

I chuckled a few times and opened the door of my truck, throwing her in gently. "Yeah, I still am..." I laughed quietly at her face. Her eyes were just slits as she continued to giggle, clapping her hands together in her lap. I shut the door in front of me and made my way to the driver's side of the car. "So, where're we headed to, Miss Young?"

She thought it over slowly. "Uhmmm...somewhere really, really fancy. The fanciest place I know..." she hummed to herself as she went through all the restaraunts she'd ever been to...and there had been quite a few of them. I'd only started going out for dinner once her parents had let me start spending heaps of time with her.

I waited for her patiently, not wanting to rush her. She finally came up with an answer. "McDonald's."

I laughed quietly to myself and pulled out, onto the road. I'd taken her to some really fancy restaraunts in her time, and I hadn't really expected her to remember the names of them, but I could understand why she liked the artificial lights and plastic stools compared to candlelight and wooden chairs.

I parked the truck in the parking lot and helped her down from her seat, placing her delicately on the ground. She shiverred and wrapped her arms around her chest as I shut the door behind her.

"You cold?" I asked her.

She nodded and held out her arms. I picked her up and hugged her to me, walking her out of the cold and inside as quickly as I could while still keeping a human pace. I walked her to the counter and the girl behind it asked what we wanted. "Claire?"

She put on her thinking face -- her mouth pouted and pulled up to the left side of her face, her eyes squinting slightly and the slight move of her little jaw as she chewed on her bottom lip.

After five minutes, she ordered a chicken nugget Happy Meal. I ordered two large Big Mac meals and took Claire to a bench in the corner of the room where she instructed we sat. There weren't many people where we were sitting; only a few a couple of benches away, and it looked like they were leaving. Claire started picking at her fries, looking out the window at the trees swaying in the strong breeze. I ate one of my meals before she'd eaten half of her fries and started on my second when the bench next to ours was filled with four girls, around nineteen.

Claire looked back at them as they giggled and turned in their seats to look at me. Words from Embry and Jacob suddenly filled my head. Words about dating. They'd asked me why I'd stopped once I'd Imprinted on Claire, just because I'd been pretty good at it before her. I still didn't know if I'd be able to take anyone on a proper date, but if I was asked, there was a slight possibility I'd say yes.

"Aww, she's the cutest thing I've ever seen!" the only blonde one at the table said, smiling at me over Claire's head. Claire rolled her eyes at her.

"Yeah, she is." I said, tapping Claire's nose.

The four of them laughed and continued smiling at me. Claire, her face looking particularly hostile, sucked on the straw in her Coke. It made that dry noise, telling me she was out of soda. "Want another drink, Claire-bear?" I asked her, reaching for her cup. She nodded. I handed her one of mine.

"So...where's her mother?" one of the native girls asked me.

I lifted an eyebrow. "At work? I'm babysitting tonight." I grinned.

"Oh!" another girl said. She twisted her hair around one of her fingers. "We thought you were her father or something...?"

I shook my head. "Naw, I'm--"

Claire turned around to face them. "He's my boyfriend." she told them seriously.

My eyebrows shot up. The four girls laughed and snuck glances at me. Claire turned back to me and winked. I smirked back at her, slightly relieved that I wouldn't have to worry about the girls that had turned back to their food once being told off by a five year old.

When Claire had finished dinner, I took her back to my apartment and we watched _Pocahontas _again. She sung to all the songs, and repeated all of the lines, and when the movie was finished, she could barely keep her eyes open. There was a storm starting outside, so I got three extra blankets out of the closet for her.

"Okay, Pocahontas, time for bed." I told her, lifting her into my arms as she put her arms up.

She yawned and rested her little head against my shoulder. "Okie dokie..." she drawled tiredly.

I carried her into her room and pulled back the blankets. The trees outside the closed window were tapping on them from the strength of the storm's wind.

"I'll wake you up at eight, okay?" I asked, kissing her forehead and pulling the blankets up around her.

She nodded and snuggled into her blankets, sighing lightly. "Love you, Quil." she murmured quietly.

"Love you, too, Claire-bear." I whispered. I watched her tiny form until she drifted off to sleep, the little snore I loved so much taking over her breathing. I smiled for a few more minutes over her before I got up and put my own pajamas on, hopping into bed.

***

"Quil!" I felt the blankets get pulled off me and groaned, reaching for them. "Quil, wake up!"

I sighed and opened my eyes halfway. The most beautiful face in the world was hovering over me, smiling my favorite smile. "What is it, Claire-bear?"

"I'm starting school today!" she said happily. I sat up and checked my clock. It was only seven.

"Yeah...and I said I'd wake you up in an hour..." I said groggily.

Claire just kept looking at me. I smiled at her and picked her up, carrying her into the living room. "So have you got your outfit to wear today?"

She nodded and pointed to the couch, where her jeans and a top I'd bought her a couple of months before were lying. She must've gotten up earlier.

"That's a good pick for your first day of school." I congratulated, trudging into the kitchen, for breakfast. "Want some Cheerios?"

She nodded and seated herself up at the counter. "Quil, I'm scared." she said quietly.

I set the cereal box on the bench and walked around to the other side, kissing her forehead. "It's okay, Claire-bear. Everyone feels like that on their first day of school. It's not exactly a scared feeling, it's...nerves."

She sighed. "I don't like the nerves."

"Naw, no one does." I said, filling two bowls with cereal and milk. I pushed one over the other side of the bench. "But I think you're gonna love school. You'll have fifty other friends by the end of the year."

"But I like all the friends I've got now!" she said, upset. "And Kim said she hated school!"

"Hey, Claire, don't listen to those stories...Kim loved school. Especially after Jared started paying her so much attention."

She sighed. "But no one Iminted me...and what if the bullies hurt me?"

"What makes you think there'll be bullies at your school?"

"_The Simpsons_." she said, taking a spoonful of her cereal.

I narrowed my eyes and started eating myself. "Who let you watch _The_ _Simpsons_?" I had a fair idea already...

"Embry and Seth were watching it." she said, drinking the milk out of her bowl.

"I'll be having a little chat with them..." I muttered, rinsing my bowl in the sink.

She grinned. "I'll help."

After breakfast, she had a shower and brushed her teeth. She was dressed by eight, her hair making a wet patch on the back of her shirt. "How do I look?" she asked, posing for me.

I smiled. "You look gorgeous, Claire-bear. You always do."

"I know." she said, skipping to the door. "Let's go now...I don't want to be late."

"Claire-bear," I picked her up and put her over my shoulder. "School starts in an hour...we could walk if you wanted?"

She nodded. "How long will that take?"

"Mmmmm...twenty minutes?"

She giggled. "We'll have to walk slowly."

She grabbed her little bag once I'd set her back on her feet and put it on her shoulder. "So will there be bullies?" she asked as we walked through the building. We took the stairs, having so much time ahead of us.

I shook my head. "I don't think so...there weren't any when I was there." I smirked to myself. Embry, Jacob and I had given a few people a pretty hard time, but we hadn't exactly been _bullies_.

"That's good." she sighed, reaching up for my hand. I had to bend over to let her reach my hand when we were walking on the same surface, so I picked her up instead.

"Are you cold?" I asked her. She only had a thin cardigan on.

"Not anymore." she said, hugging me.

I laughed. "I'm not going to be there all day...what if you freeze?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'll ask for a jacket?"

"I'll give you mine." I told her, pulling her hair gently. She grinned and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, Quil."

We walked slowly through the quiet town. Claire said hello and waved to anyone who passed us, even if she didn't know them. They smiled back and greeted her all the same.

I bought ice cream as we passed Dippin' Dots, and Claire was overly careful not to spill rainbow down her top. We got to the school with fifteen minutes until the bell rang, and Claire made me walk her around, introducing herself to everyone there.

The school went from years kindergarten to senior years. There weren't many children attending, but almost every single student from around the La Push area were taught there.

"Quil!" a voice came from behind me once Claire had found a friend. She was talking to the girl about cats, saying she preffered dogs. I was standing behind her and turned to my name being called.

"Oh -- Miss Leddel!" I said, smiling hugely.

She smiled back and stood next to me. "It's been a while...why didn't you finish your school years?"

I grimmaced. "Things came up...a lot of things."

"And was that the same with Jacob and Embry?"

I nodded. She sighed and looked down, smiling at Claire and her new friend. "Who're these little lovelies?"

I pointed to Claire. "That one's my Claire-bear...and I have no idea who the other one is."

She laughed. "Claire-bear?"

Claire turned to her nickname and smiled up at Miss Leddel. "Yes?"

"Oh, she's beautiful, Quil." she said, giving Claire a warm smile. "I didn't see any Atearas on the new list."

"She's not mine." I said quickly. "She's...a friend."

Miss Leddel nodded slowly. "So what's Claire-bear's name?"

"Claire Young." Claire said, holding out her hand to her new teacher. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Claire." Miss Leddel said politely, shaking her hand. "And who're you?" she turned to Claire's friend.

"Sally Mikks." the girl said, smiling at myself and Miss Leddel.

"Hello, Sally."

Miss Leddel went off after that to meet a couple of her other students. I kept watching Claire and Sally mess around until the bell rang. "Quil!" she started freaking out. "What do I do now?!"

I smiled gently at her, trying to keep her calm and bent down, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Just follow what everyone else does, be nice, and listen to the teacher...here, have my jacket." I took off the jacket that was just making me hotter than I needed to be and gave it to her. "And if you have any problems, just ask them and they'll give me a call. I'll be here as soon as I can to pick you up."

"Thanks, Quil." she sniffed, giving me a quick hug. I kissed her forehead and watched her get pulled away by Sally.

I stood at the gate until I couldn't see her anymore. She waved back at me the whole time.

"Well, that's a relief." a mother laughed, smiling up at me.

I gave her a look. "What...you're _happy_ about them going off?"

She nodded. "Don't tell me you're not. You're only young."

I sighed. "She's growing up too quickly."

*******

**I've never actually read a Claire and Quil FanFiction before, so I don't know if this is how they actually work, but each chapter will be, like, an important part of Claire's life, or something to mark her age. Pretty soon I should be putting a chapter in Claire's perspective up, because that's how I wanted the story to be to start with. Please review! I'll have the next chapter up in about a week, maybe sooner.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	5. Chapter Four

**Hey everyone! Big thanks to 90sgurl TheWriterSinead, Asha123 and **** for their reviews! Thank you, as well, to the wonderful people who put my story on their alerts list! You all make me so happy :)**

**Alrighty, so this was the fourth chapter. It was requested that Claire's first day at school be written in here, and I didn't want to change the text to third from first person, so the words were a lot more mature than Claire would be able to write down herself. I just didn't want the whole chapter to be a pile of mush and no one be able to understand it. Just ignore the fact that she's only five and a bit, please. **

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**Chapter 4**

**CPOV**

I kept waving back at Quil until I couldn't see him anymore. Sally pulled me along behind her. I was happy that I'd found a new friend -- I hadn't really spent any time with kids my age as I grew up. Most of my spare time was spent with Quil and Nessie, which I didn't mind at all. I loved them, and all of my other friends.

In the middle of the school, everyone that I suspected to be in my class was waiting in a big group, concentrating on Miss Leddel. She had a piece of paper in front of her and was reading out the names. The people who's names she read out walked to an older person standing near Miss Leddel, then they would take them toward one of two rooms. They must have been our class rooms.

Nearly everyone was gone when she said my name; only one person was left behind. I walked up to the girl waiting for me and smiled back at her.

"Hey, Claire. I'm Amanda." she said, holding out her hand.

"Hello, Amanda." I said politely -- I was already thinking of ways to pretend I was sick so Quil would come and get me. I'd rather be with him than here, learning about all sorts of different things that I didn't care about.

"Do you wanna go see your new room?" she asked, turning toward a few buildings. I sighed and nodded, even though I'd rather have run out screaming.

The room she took me to had bright blue walls and a big black board out the front with lots of different colored chalk in a bucket next to it. There were paintings and drawings all over the place with people's names in the corners. A shelf held lots of little books with pictures and big writing on the front. There was a group of desks in the middle of the room, all pushed up together in a big pattern. On each desk, there was an old biscuit tin with colored pencils, markers and crayons in them. A bright green book was underneath each of the biscuit tins, and there were already most of the people sitting behind one.

Sally was on the other side of the room. She smiled and waved me over, and Amanda let me take the seat next to my new friend. The older girl got a chair for herself and pulled it up behind me as Sally and I talked excitedly. As I talked with her I looked around. I was curious to see everything I could in the new space.

I only knew a couple of the other kids around the room better than just seeing them around the reservation -- my dad's best friend's son, Bobby, was in the middle of the room with a girl I had seen around the street. Sam's sister's daughters were sitting together on the other side, and they smiled when they saw me. I'd met them at Emily's birthday party last year, but I couldn't remember anything about them or what their names were.

Miss Leddel walked in once the last person had come in and sat down. There were still a few seats empty, but she smiled down at all of us and started talking, anyway.

"Hello, all of you beautiful new people!" she said happily, making most of us smile. "I'm Miss Leddel, and I'm going to be lucky to teach all of you this year." she stopped and kept smiling, looking around the room slowly. We could already tell that she was a happy person, and she had a very pretty smile, so everyone was quiet and listening to her closely.

"Now, I know some of you, but I've never met a lot of the others. And I know that you perople don't know everyone else in the room. So, each of you are going to stand up when it's your turn and tell us your name and something about yourself. You can tell them anything you like, but it has to be about you." she told us, walking to the end of one of the desks and putting her hand on the corner of it. "You can start."

The boy stood from his seat and smiled around at all of us. "My name's Cory," he started. "And I like boats, and super heroes and pirates."

"Very good." Miss Leddel said, nodding for him to sit down and the next person to stand. The twins names were Annabelle and Lyla, and they said they both liked First Beach and their Aunty Emily's food. I crossed that off what I was going to say, not blaming them for getting it first. Emily's cooking was to die for.

Sally stood up just before me and swallowed nervously. "My name is Sally, and I like dancing, playing my drums and visiting my cousins."

"Okay," Miss Leddel nodded, smiling warmly at her. "Next?"

I jumped up from my seat and gave everyone a big smile. I didn't know why Sally had been so nervous. All of the people in the room were really interesting and I'd just wanted to yell out and ask them questions as they were speaking. "My name's Claire, and my best friend's Quil, and I like chocolate and my friends and family and my favorite animal's a dog." I swung on the spot while I talked, then I smiled once more and dropped back into my seat. Miss Leddel smiled at me and nodded at the person on the other side of me to talk.

When we were finished introducing ourselves to our classmates, the older students who had taken us to the class room left and Miss Leddel made us sit on the floor in front of her and explained our class rooms, pointing to a big poster on the wall, which, apparently said the same thing. I couldn't work out the markings of the letters for myself, but Emily had said that I'd be learning what they meant while I was at the school.

"No eating in the class room during class. If I tell you you can eat in here, you're welcome to, but if you do without asking, you'll get into trouble." she said, frowning a little bit. "You can't be mean to your class mates. If someone's being mean to you, tell me. Don't be mean back. This is the _only _classroom you're allowed to learn in. Each morning, and after lunch, you all have to come back _here_ and sit on the floor, where you're sitting now." There was a lot of things we weren't allowed to do without asking, and I couldn't catch all of them, but I told myself that I wouldn't do anything more than sit and listen without asking. Just until I learned the others.

We listened to each of her rules and, after about twenty minutes -- she had to keep stopping to ask people to be quiet -- she read us all a story. It was about cooking dinner, and I listened intently with everyone else as Miss Leddel held up the pictures to show us.

The bell rang a couple of minutes after she'd finished the story. Everyone stopped talking and looked up at Miss Leddel, wondering what to do. I could remember her saying something about a room we all sat in to eat, but I didn't no anything more than that.

"Get your bags and follow me, guys." she said, standing from her chair and putting her shoes back on. She walked to the front of the classroom, by the door and turned around to face us as some of the boys went to run out of the room.

"I want you all to stand in two lines here," she held up her arms to show us where she wanted us. "Don't push...Bobby! Go to the end of the line, please. Okay, now we're going to go to the cafeteria, which is where the whole school eats, so you can't run around and scream and yell and interrupt the other people, alright?"

A few of us, including me, nodded, even though I was sure I wasn't the only one in the class that hadn't remembered the big word she'd just said, so she smiled and started walking to one of the biggest buildings in the school. The outside was made of brick, and it had a few chalk pictures on the side of it, as well as some big paintings that were hung around. They looked like some of the old pictures my family had told me our ancestors had drawn, but newer. I wondered if people at the school had done them. She opened the doors to the cafeteria when we reached it and let us walk through in front of her. "Find a seat. Don't bother anyone."

Sally grabbed my hand and towed me to a table without anyone else sitting at it. A couple of teenagers -- two girls and a boy -- watched us, smiling slightly from the next table.

"Hey, can we sit with you two?" Cory asked, already sitting next to Sally with his tray. "There's no where else."

"Only if you give me your cookies." I said, holding out my hand. I got two out of three, which I thought was pretty good, and a boy named Daniel and another I didn't recognise sat down at the table with us.

"Who're you?" I asked through a mouthful of cookie, spraying everyone with muched up crumbs and chocolate chips. I frowned in front of me, where I'd seen the spray flying. I always had trouble keeping stuff in my mouth. Brushing my teeth was a horror story in itself...

The boy laughed quietly. "Zach. I'm in your class." I nodded and took another bite out of my cookie, still looking around the room.

Quil had said that it was a small school, but there were _so many people_ there. I couldn't count well, but I knew if I could, I probably wouldn't be able to count each person. I was a good counter for my age, but horrible compared to Nessie.

At the end of lunch, we all made our way back to our classroom with Miss Leddel, who had stayed at the cafeteria to keep an eye on us. "What're we doing now?" a girl with thick pigtails asked as we sat back on the floor. Miss Leddel walked to the side of the room and pulled out a draw.

"We're going to paint pictures." she told us, handing out paintbrushes to everyone. She put big pieces of paper on each of the desks and asked us to stand at one.

"What are we painting?"

"Whatever you want." our teacher said as she poured red, blue and yellow paints onto a number of plastic plates.

Half an hour later, we were carrying our paper up to Miss Leddel for her to spread them out on a table so they would dry. She wrote our initials in the corners and told us what a good job we'd all done.

Bobby got in a little bit of trouble for being careless and getting paint all over his clothes when Miss Leddel had told us not to and to be really careful. He was sent up to the office to get cleaned up before we had to go home.

We all sat on the carpet and Miss Leddel got out a guitar and started playing it, singing songs that we all knew. Some of the songs had actions, and Sally got up and started dancing to them. I looked out the window, where I could see cars starting to park. I wondered if Quil was out there, waiting for me. Mommy and Daddy worked until night time every day, so Quil had said that he would pick me up until I was old enough to walk myself. The school wasn't very far away from my house.

After singing and playing a couple of games, Miss Leddel made us all sit back on the floor in front of her and gave us her warm smile.

"You're all very good children, and I'm glad to be teaching you this year. Tomorrow will be a bit different than today -- today you were just supposed to be meeting each other and getting to know me a little better. Tomorrow I'll start to teach you things that you'll need when you grow up...things like counting and reading.

"When the bell rings in a minute, you'll have to walk up to where you came in today, and your parents should pick you up. _Don't_ get into anyone's car that you don't know, okay?" a couple of people nodded, to show her that they had heard her.

"Good. Now, I'll see you all tomorrow. Bye, guys." the bell rang as soon as she'd said it. I smiled once more at her and picked up my jacket and rain coat, pulling them on before I grabbed my bag.

I was excited when I'd heard that we'd be doing more than games and activities I could do at home. I was a little scared, though. What if I couldn't do any of the things she said? It would be horrible if everyone else in the class was really good at them, and I was struggling. Maybe I would be able to get taught things by the Cullens like Nessie...though, it would be annoying to drive all the way to their house every day instead of just a couple of minutes to school.

I was just walking out the door when I looked and and saw Quil.

"Claire-bear!" he said, holding out his warm arms. I ran and jumped in them, hugging around his neck.

Miss Ledell came out to talk to him, still smiling. "Hello, Quil."

"Hey, Miss." he greeted her, taking my bag from me and swinging it over his own shoulder. I looked up, surprised by the way he'd called her 'Miss'. "How was Claire today?"

"She was a very good girl." my teacher said.

I snuggled into Quil's shoulder, his familiar temperature warming up the side of my face. I always loved how warm he was, except for when I was really cold and it was a shock. He hugged me tightly and continued his conversation with Mrs. Leddel.

"So what're you doing with yourself at the moment, Quil?" she asked him.

I smiled. He didn't tell anyone he was a wolf that ran patrols to keep the local people safe, but he managed to make it sound like he was always busy. "I work at the nearest CD shop. I'm there about five days a week normally, and I take care of Claire when she's home and I'm not doing anything. Her parents work most days." he told her.

"Oh, that's nice...are you close with the Youngs?"

I felt Quil nod a couple of times. "Yeah, one of my very close friends is with Emily Young. That's Claire's aunt."

"So...that's the only way you know Claire?"

"Mm-hm." Quil nodded again.

I wondered when Miss Leddel was going to say goodbye to Quil; I was bored.

"That's unusual...that you would become so close to someone you only know through that bond." she said.

Quil hugged me a little tighter. "Yeah, I guess. Well, we have to be going. It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, you too." she said. Quil turned around and started walking out, into the rain to get to his truck. I waved to Miss Leddel over his shoulder and she smiled and waved through the class room window.

He helped me into my seat, then walked around to the driver's side of the truck. He waited for a car to drive past, then he opened the door and climbed in. "We have to go grovery shopping...I ate your house out of food while I was waiting for you to come home." he said guiltily.

I giggled. We got to the grocery store and he took me from the truck and put me in a trolley, pushing me around the aisles like he usually did. I sat in the front, smiling at anyone who looked at me.

We had finished shopping and eating more than one of the free samples that were offered to us, and we were at the checkout counter. Something came back into my head, so I voiced it.

"Quil?"

He put the last of the maccaroni boxes up and grabbed a couple of bags of junk food that we had put in the trolley. "Yeah?"

"Why _are _you with me so much?" I asked him. I had wondered about it when Miss Leddel asked him.

He smiled and mussed my hair gently. "I already told you; you're my best friend." he said.

I smiled and lifted my arms for him to help me out of the trolley. "And I already told you you're mine, too."

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**Just wanted to say that I'm just starting off and planning this story as I write it and do just about a million other things, as well as trying to put up the chapters when I say I'm going to, so I haven't really put much work into the character's thoughts. I'll stop sleeping for a while so I can hopefully make it a heap better for you, but I'm not making any promises toward its brilliance.**

**Please review, I'm begging you! Hehe, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it...anyway...**

**Chlowie, xo**


	6. Chapter Five

**Helloooooo! Okay, I told some people I'd be posting three chapters for my friend's birthday on Saturday, but my computer didn't think that was such a good idea, so it didn't let me and now's the first time it has and I am so HAPPY! So, I'll be posting the three of them now and the next one that was supposed to come up today anyway later today or tonight.**

**Thank you to my reviewers since I posted the last chapter; ****Fuzzyfurr and bookworm1545, and to all of the people who added my story to their favourites and alerts. Love you guys!**

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**Chapter 5**

**QPOV**

Claire giggled and ran as fast as she could, away from me and Jacob in our wolf forms. We chased after the two girls, slow enough for them to be able to run from us.

We hadn't spent much time in our animal forms at the same time lately. There had been so many more people in the pack since Sam had given up his wolf, so no one was on patrol as much as they used to be. They were all enjoying it. Especially the ones who had Imprints. And Jacob didn't mind all the extra paws to look out for. This was meant for him. He was a decendant of the old pack's leader. It was in Jacob's blood to be able to cope with controlling so many other wolves.

Today we weren't looking out for vampires all that much. We were babysitting. Nessie and Claire had been with us all day, and, starting to get a little bored, they had asked for us to phase and chase after them.

Claire looked back over her shoulder and ran straight into Nessie, who had stopped for a moment to tease Jacob with a face. Before any of us could stop her, she'd whacked the side of her head on Nessie's elbow, and fallen to the ground from the impact. Nessie hadn't been effected at all, but she covered her mouth with her hands and bent down to her. I ran into the trees and phased, pulling on my shorts as quickly as I could and running out again. There was no way I was about to stay in my wolf form with Claire the least bit from perfect.

"Claire, I'm so sorry!" Nessie was repeating over and over again. Claire was crying quietly on the ground, holding the left side of her face, over her eye. It was painful for me to see her upset like this, even if it was just from the shock of getting a minor injury. I was still worried for her so much I needed to check on her multiple times myself.

I picked her up and held her closely to me, kissing her cheek. "It's okay, Nessie. It wasn't your fault." I assured her, looking back at Claire. "Claire, where'd you hurt?"

She took her little hands off her face and pointed to the side of her eye, where there was a red mark developing. I kissed it gently. She sniffed. "Better?" I asked her.

She shook her head and tilted it toward me so I'd kiss it again for her. In the end, I'd kissed the corner of her eye at least two hundred times. I didn't mind. She wasn't feeling the best, and I wanted to help her get better. I'd do anything for that result. She finally said it felt better. Nessie didn't stop apologising, even though we both said it wasn't her fault. Jacob had phased and was telling Nessie it wasn't her fault as well after a few minutes. The two settled for sitting together and watching me try to fix Claire's eye.

Nessie now looked around eleven -- about twice the age of my little Claire, who had just had her sixth birthday. We'd gone back to the beach that day, and spent the whole day playing 'Wolves and Indians'. It was a tradition that'd been going on three years that she spent her birthday with me.

"You okay now?" I asked her once she'd dried her tears away on my bare shoulders. She nodded and gave me a little smile.

"C'mon, let's get you two inside," Jacob said, catching Nessie on his back. "It's getting cold out here." We started walking back to the Cullen's mansion, even though Claire was the only one who could feel the temperature enough to worry her.

It was almost winter, and the first frost had already come. It hadn't exactly _snowed_, though. Nessie and Claire were bundled up in matching clothes; massively padded coats, long sleeved shirts with turtle-neck collars, colorful tights and heavy skirts. They had the same big boots on, lined with fur, but with what looked like sneakers on the bottom. Nessie had removed her jacket as soon as she was out of her aunt's sight, which was why it had been easier for Claire to hurt her eye on it. Alice had gotten to the two of them, and loved dressing them the same way, claiming they could be sisters. I couldn't really see that though -- one of them was extremely pale, and the other with a natural copper complexion, not to mention how perfectly set Nessie's face had been. Not even their eyes were exactly the same color, though they were both chocolate brown. Claire's were just darker.

"Aww, you've stopped playing already?" Alice asked, taking Nessie from Jacob and rubbing noses with her. She pouted when she saw Claire's eye. She must have been able to see a hint of the bruise around it already.

"I jumped while I was running and hit my head on Nessie's elbow!" Claire grumbled, pulling the corners of her mouth down.

"Aww," Alice said, taking her from me so she had both girls in her arms. "Poor little angel. Are you two hungry?"

Nessie looked at her like she was insane and rolled her eyes, jumping out of Alice's embrace. I don't know how Alice had been able to hold her and make it look slightly confortable; Nessie was only half an inch shorter than her at least.

Emmett laughed at Claire, but stopped with Rosalie's glare. "What?"

"Don't you dare laugh at children like that!" Rosalie threatened him, shaking her head slightly. Emmett immediately became silent and concentrated more than he needed to on a football game showing on the screen of their massive television.

I decided not to get into that one and brushed Claire's hair back from her face. "Do you guys have any ice or something that you can put of her eye?"

Alice rolled her eyes and pressed her hand gingerly up against Claire's face. "Better than any ice, Claire?"

Claire nodded gently, smiling up at me.

Alice took her into the kitchen and carried her around with her hand always on her eye, making her a sandwich one-handed. She was finished in under a minute and brought her back into the living room, giving Claire her lunch.

"Where's Mommy and Daddy?" Nessie asked, glancing around the room.

"They're...still at the cottage." Alice told her while Emmett chuckled deeply to himself. "And Uncle Jazz, Grandma and Grandpa just left for hunting. I'll take you with your parents tomorrow."

Nessie smiled and leaped onto the couch, snatching the remote from Emmett and changing the channel. Emmett looked like he was about to say something, but stopped when he caught sight of Jacob's protective face and leaned back into the couch, trying to put up with _America's Next Top Model_ -- something Nessie didn't particularly like, but knew Alice and Rose loved. I assumed she didn't just give the remote back to Emmett because she wanted to annoy him. Or keep a little pride.

After Claire had eaten, I took her back to my apartment. She made me kiss the corner of her eye a couple more times. Embry showed up with his new girlfriend, who he'd been dating for about six months. "Hey, guys," he said, pulling her down on the couch with him.

He hadn't told her about our 'condition', as Sam had called it, and she'd accepted the fact of our height and body temperature to be with him. Then again, when I thought about it she probably hadn't noticed. I, and a few of the other guys, had a feeling it was just for his looks that she was sticking with him, though Embry didn't seem bothered by that. He'd insisted it was better than her just being interested in his money, which he didn't have any of, anyway.

"Hey Em, Maddie." I greeted them, not looking up at them. It always made me slightly jealous that I didn't have anyone to be with like that. Not yet, anyway... I stopped myself from thinking too much on that subject. It wasn't definite that Claire would ever pick me to be with in later life, I reminded myself. She might think of that like siblings getting together, which, I knew, wouldn't be the most appealing thing for her. There was still a pretty big chance, though...

"So guess who we just ran into?" Embry said, wrapping his arms around Maddie's waist and kissing her neck.

"Santa Claus?" I joked. Claire looked up, suddenly interested in his answer. She thought Santa was one of her best friends, after the two of us got a photo with him last year and she'd mysteriously recieved the exact movie she'd asked for. Now I just had to put up with calling her Pocahontas _and_ Tinkerbell...

"No..." Maddie shook her head a couple of times, her unnaturally blond hair whipping around her face as she showed how much she could relate to her hair color.

"Kim and Jared." Embry told us, saving Maddie from talking her little brain out. And I meant _little_.

"Oh, great." I said. "So...do you have something to tell us, or was it just amazing that you caught them while in the same, under-populated town?"

Maddie laughed loudly, and Embry narrowed his eyes. "Something to tell you."

"Did _they_ see Santa Claus?" Claire asked intently, leaning across the stool in the middle of the floor to listen closely to Embry's answer.

"No, Claire...it wasn't about Santa, though I'm sure he'll send you another letter soon." he glanced up at me quickly. "No, uhh...it was about Kim."

"What's wrong with her?" I asked, worried by the way he'd said it.

"Nothing...she's pregnant." Embry said, still not looking happy.

I smiled widely. "That's great! How long've they known for?"

"They only found out today..." Embry said glumly.

"Em, what's wrong?" I asked him, wondering why he wasn't happy for his friends.

He sighed. "Maddie, would you go out to my car and see if I left my phone there?" Maddie nodded and walked out of the apartment without saying anything. Embry took his phone out of his pocket as soon as she'd gone and held it up to show me and Claire before continuing. "It's going to be just like Sam and Emily...Kim's, what...twenty-three, twenty-four now? She's only got a little bit of time until she's up to the same physical age as Jared. And now she's having a baby, and Jared's going to start putting family first...I mean more than now. And then _he's_ going to leave the pack."

I nodded slowly. "I could see where you were going with this."

"So our pack's going to keep leaving and then there's going to be, like, two of us left."

I looked at Claire. "You know I'm not going to leave you for a while, Em."

"Yeah, but you will." Embry insisted glumly. "Once you start thinking that way, Jacob's going to be the only one that can still live with being immortal...I'll probably settle down with Maddie before too long, and I can see everyone else in the pack Imprinting before too long."

"You really think Maddie's..._right_ for you?" I asked, wondering where the blond bombshell was as we spoke.

He shrugged. "She'll never be as perfect for me as Emily is for Sam, or Kim is for Jared or Rachel for Paul, Nessie for Jake or --" I gave him a warning glance as his eyes flicked to Claire. Everyone had agreed with me to try and keep the truth about my Imprint from her, though they said it'd make my life a whole lot easier if she knew about it. "Or any other Imprint that comes along is...but I don't think I'll ever find someone, Quil." sadness filled his eyes at these words.

"Embry...just...don't go rushing into this relationship, okay?" I stopped as Maddie walked back through the door. Claire turned around to put her eyes back to _Peter Pan, _which was playing on my television for the second time that week. I, personally, preferred _Pocahontas. _She'd been listening to our conversation, but she wouldn't go blabbing to Maddie about us talking about her. Not to mention she hardly found interest in this kind of thing.

"I couldn't find it." she told Embry, pouting as she sat between his legs on the couch.

"That's okay, Baby." he said, wrapping his arms around her waist again and pulling her back into him.

I sighed heavily and slid off my arm chair, landing on the floor with a muted thud. Claire shuffled herself over and leaned against my raised knee, her eyes still plastered to Wendy as she fell off a cloud and through the air, missing any arrows flying toward her.

"I think it's nice Kim's pregnant." she said quietly. "If it's a girl, Toby can look after her. I think that'd be nice if they'd get married..and Alice would help set it out for them."

"Who's Alice?" Maddie asked, listening as Claire got ahead of everyone.

Embry smirked. "She's a fairy. Claire loves her."

Claire turned around and stuck her tongue out at Embry as Maddie sat and stared at the wall.

***

"So how's school going, Claire-bear?" I asked her as we drove to Port Angeles. Embry and Maddie had left my apartment about two hours ago, and Claire said she'd wanted to do something. We hadn't been into town for a while, so I was taking her out for an early dinner and a movie.

"Good. Sally's my best friend at school. Miss Leddel said hello to you." she told me, smiling.

"Tell her hello from me, too, won't you?"

She nodded. "She's a nice lady."

"So who are your other friends?" I asked her, keen on listening to anything she had to tell me. She didn't talk much about her school, and she'd been going to it for over a year, so anything I could squeeze out of her made me happy.

"Cory's my friend. And Zach. And Daniel." she listed.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. "Are they all guys?"

"Except for Sally." she corrected me.

I frowned. "You don't have _any_ other girl friends?"

"A new girl just started at the school...her name's Kelsi. She said she was born in La Push, but her parents moves to California for a couple of years, but they're back now." she said. "She's kind of my friend."

"Whoa, California must've been a big change for her." I said, taking a right turn and stopping the car.

She unbuckled her seatbelt. "She said she likes it better. She doesn't like the rain."

I opened the door on my side and ran around to her side, opening her door for her. She always let me, wanting to feel like a princess.

"Do you like the rain or the sun better?" I asked her, lifting her into my arms so her new boots wouldn't get wet in the puddles on the sidewalk.

"If it didn't rain here, I wouldn't be able to see Nessie. She's my best girl friend out of all of them, but she told me she can't go to school."

I carried her out of the rain and put her down underneath the shelter of a shop sign, ignoring a few of the looks I got from people walking around the town. It was kind of hard to get used to the looks from the fact that I was at least a foot taller than anyone else around, but I put up with it.

"What do you wanna do first?"

She put on her adorable thinking face and smiled. "I wanna go see the movie first, then have dinner."

I nodded and pulled her toward the cinema, slightly bending so she could hold my hand as we walked.

We were almost there when she tugged back on my hand. "Quil! Wait!"

"What?" I asked her, glancing around.

She pointed to the window of a toy store. "It's you!"

There was a stand of stuffed animals in the window, and a chocolate brown dog stood in it, staring out at us next to a rabbit. I laughed. "It is too."

She pulled me into the toy store and held out her arms so I'd pick her up. She lifted it from the stand and hugged it. "Can this be my early birthday present?"

I smirked. "Of course it can." I told her, kissing her head. It'd only been her birthday a little while earlier, so it wasn't really a birthday present, but it made me happy to by stuff she wanted for her. She only asked if she really wanted something.

She asked if we could walk around the store for a little while longer, looking at things for sale. She played with a remote controlled cat and started a foam sword fight in the middle of the big shop, making me recieve unpolite looks from parents and admiring ones from kids for playing along with her. I didn't care. I was having just as much fun as she was.

After half an hour of messing around, Claire got bored and I bought her wolf for her and started our way down to the cinema. I got two of the first tickets in to the newest kids movie and we sat in the back row, Claire still clinging onto her new doll.

After the movie, I carried her out, into the rain and we found the closest restaraunt to where my truck was parked. Claire ate half of her meal, so I finished it off for her, and then I took her home. It was eight thirty, so I knew she wasn't going to be asleep at her normal bed time. She'd had Coke at dinner, and she needed a couple of hours to calm down before I tucked her in.

Her parents were home when we'd gotten back.

"Where've you been?" Claire's father asked, opening the door to us and raising his eyebrows.

I set Claire on the ground. "We went to see a movie and have dinner in Port Angeles." I told him, ignoring his tone.

Troy grunted and moved away from the entrance to let us in. I got dragged into Claire's room with barely a hello to Marylyn over my shoulder, and sat on her floor when she sat at her little play table. I couldn't sit in the chairs without them breaking...something I'd learned from experience. She pulled out her markers and notepad and tore me off a piece.

"What're we drawing?" I asked her, grabbing a green marker and taking the lid off.

She smiled. "Surprise." she scratched the stuffed dog in her lap behind his ear. "His name's Quil." she said. "After you."

"Aw, thanks, Claire." I said, smiling down at my paper.

I ended up drawing a boat sailing next to an island. I held it up in front of my face to show Claire. "Done!"

"That's pretty good, Quil." she said, nodding as I put it back on the table. "I drew us." she held hers up in front of her face.

The picture was done in the brightest colors on the table. There was a girl with purple pigtails weraing a green dress standing in front of a big brown dog. They were both smiling widely. Underneath the lime green grass there were three words in Claire's writing, almost impossible to understand.

ME AND QUIL

I smiled. "That's beautiful, Claire-bear."

She giggled. "Thank you!"

Her bedroom door burst open and her mother walked in, smiling down on us both. "Time for bed, Claire. Say goodnight to Quil."

She stood up and hugged me, holding out her left eye for me to kiss the corner of it once more. I laughed and kissed her eye, standing up myself.

"What've we been drawing?" Marylyn asked, picking up the sheets and studying them. "Claire...why've you drawn Quil as a dog?"

Claire held up her stuffed wolf. "This Quil. My Quil bought it for me today."

"Ah," her mother set it on Claire's desk as I just about exploded with pride at hearing her say 'my Quil'. "That's nice of him." she gave me a smile.

I lifted Claire into her hammock and mussed her hair playfully. "'Night, Claire-bear."

"Goodnight Quil." she said, her eyes still as wide as they had been when we were out. "No--wait! I'm not tired!"

I laughed and tucked her in. "I'm coming to get you in the morning, so you have to sleep."

"Ah 'kay." she pretended to yawn and closed her eyes. "I'll miss you, Quil."

"Miss you, too, Claire-bear." I kissed the corner of her eye, making her smile, and walked toward the door.

Marylyn was watching the two of us sadly, leaning against the door of Claire's bedroom. "Goodnight, Quil."

"'Night, Marylyn." I walked past her and into the living room. "Goodnight, Troy."

"Quil," he muttered, not taking his eyes off the television. I sighed and walked out the front, into the cold air that didn't bother me.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter 6**

"You ready, Claire-bear?"

Claire shook her head, obviously scared stiff of her new present and took off her helmet, throwing it to the ground. "No, I'm scared."

I picked up her helmet, pulled a twig from out of the grooves in the top and handed it to her. "C'mon, Claire. Please?"

She gave me a long look, pouting adorably, then took the helmet from my outstretched hand and put it back on her head, buckling it under her chin. "Fine, but I'm not happy."

I grinned and held up her new bike, standing away from it so she was able to climb up onto the seat. I helped her as she did, getting her seated properly before I took my right hand off the front of the bike.

"No! Quil!" she screamed, putting her feet down and clinging to my shirt.

I pulled her fingers off my front, laughing lightly. "It's okay, Claire-bear...I've got you, see?" There was no way I was going to put her on something that had the slightest chance of hurting her. She should have known that.

She nodded quickly, almost frantically and sat back on the bike. "Okay..."

"And you've got training wheels on, so there's absolutely no way that the bike can tip over." I assured her, slowly pulling further away from her bike. "Are you ready for me to let go yet?"

"One hand." she said, sounding like she was concentrating very hard on something. I removed the hand on her handle bars and stood back, letting her see nothing was going to go wrong.

"The other hand now?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "Quil, I'm scared."

"I know, but it's only a bike, Claire-bear. It can't hurt you." I took my other hand away from the back of her bike without her noticing and stood up slowly. She was still looking down at the ground. The training wheels on the back of the bike didn't let it tip to any side, as well as the stand still being on the ground. I kicked it up as quietly as I could, and, to my relief, Claire didn't notice.

She took a couple of deep breaths and looked up at me. "I think I just wanna go home."

"But you got so close! Just...try pedalling first?"

She became aware of the fact that I wasn't holding her any more and gasped, jumping off the bike again.

I groaned and held it up as it pulled on her leg, catching her when she started tipping toward the ground. "You okay?"

"Quil, I told you not to let go of me!" she whined, reaching for her helmet again. I caught her hand.

"Oh, _please_, Claire? I promise, you will absolutely love this bike once you've learnt how to ride it."

She sighed and climbed back on her bike, nodding once. I laughed and held the front of the bike for her as she steadied herself.

"You can let go of the bike now, Quil. I trust the training wheels now."

I let go of the bike as she asked and stood back, my arms ready to catch her in case she freaked out again. I was a little worried myself now. The bike wasn't going to hurt her, but if she jumped up again like she did she might scratch herself on it or something. I really didn't want that to happen. "You going to pedal?"

"How do I get my feet up?" she asked, her face looking a little too pale for our heratige.

"Just...put one up, and then put the other up quickly..." I frowned, trying to explain. "Do you want me to hold it the first time?"

She nodded quickly and bit her lip as I grabbed the bike. "Now...put one of your feet up on the pedals...good...now the other one, quickly."

She jumped up and got both of her feet on the pedals. "Ah, I'm doing it!" she said, sounding half excited, half terrified.

"See?" I asked, smiling down at her. "Easy!"

She nodded and told me I could let go of the bike now. I stood back from her yet again and watched her. "Start pedalling."

She pushed her feet forward, spinning the pedals forward. The bike took her forward about a metre on the sidewalk, then she stopped and almost jumped off it.

"Quil!" she screamed as I pulled her out of the way so she wouldn't get hit by her falling bike. "Did you see me go?!"

"That was brilliant, Claire-bear, I am _so_ proud of you." I said, reaching under her helmet to kiss the corner of her eye.

She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I can't wait to tell Mommy!"

"I know, she's going to be so happy." I said, setting her back on the ground. She ran to her bike again and picked it up off the ground. "I want another turn!"

I laughed. "I told you you'd love it."

She stuck her tongue out at me and climbed back on by herself, cautiously enough to make sure it wasn't going to fall down without her help.

I watched her for the rest of the day, pedalling up and down the sidewalk out the front of my apartment.

*******

"Mommy! Guess what I did!" Claire yelled, running up the drive way and throwing herself in her mother's arms. Marylyn caught her, smiling at her daughter's happiness, and pulled her back from her face.

"I don't know, Claire, what'd you do today?"

"Quil taught me how to ride my bike!" she said happily, smiling so wide her eyes weren't visible.

Marylyn laughed and smiled warmly at me. "Ah, that's nice of him. You're lucky to have Quil, you know."

"_I'm_ lucky to have _her_." I said, reaching them with my slower-than-normal pace and smiling back down at Marylyn.

Claire turned in her mother's arms and reached for my hand, holding it with her. "Thank you, Quil."

"That's okay, Claire-bear. And whenever you want to ride your bike again, just tell me and I'll take you to my house to get it, okay?"

She nodded, still smiling.

"Quil, Troy's the only one working tonight, so I've made dinner...are you going to stay with us and eat?" Marylyn asked me.

"Sure." I told her, taking Claire from her arms when I knew she'd gotten too heavy for her. She was seven now, so she wasn't the most comfortable thing for everyone to lift while they were hugging her. She was an alright size for me, though.

I carried Claire inside with Marylyn and got dragged into her bedroom, playing Monopoly with her.

Claire giggled. "How can _you_ win the beauty contest?!"

I pretended to glare at her. "I'm gorgeous."

"Aw, we're going to have to get you a mirror, Quil!" she joked, poking my nose. "You've been looking at me too much."

I laughed with her and reached for her ribs, tickling her to an extent that she kicked around on the ground, messing up the game board and screaming and giggling for me to stop.

I sat back, laughing. "Oh, I'm sorry, Claire-bear...couldn't help myself."

"How're we going to play Monopoly now?!" she shrieked, picking the little dog -- representing me -- up from next to the big matress underneath her hammock and bringing it back to the board.

"Oh well...we'd been playing for an hour, anyway." I passed it off, cleaning up the area around the board game. I put all the pieces back in the box and put it under her desk, getting to my feet.

"Let's go see if we can have dinner yet," Claire said, taking my hand and leading me out, to the kitchen.

*******

"Where're we going?" Claire bounced eagerly in her seat, looking out the windscreen for any hints to where I was taking her.

"Secret. You're going to have to wait." I teased, mentally groaning at the traffic to get onto the road I was aiming for.

"How long've we been driving for now?" Claire asked me, pouting at all of the cars.

I didn't want her to get anymore bored than she already was, so I wasn't up to telling her how long we actually _had_ been driving for. "Uhh...a little while. Not long now though, Claire-bear."

"Okie dokie." she said, pulling her feet up to her so she could get a better look out the window. "Are we in Seattle?"

"Yep."

"Ahhhh..." she grinned. "I haven't been here since I was two!"

I grinned. "Bet you'll have more fun today than you did then."

She took my free hand in both of hers and played with my fingers. "Of course I will. You weren't with me last time..."

I swallowed, driving a few metres forward as I got more space. "Thanks, Claire-bear."

After another half of an hour, I finally got into the show ground and parked my truck, opening my door to a blast of icy air and getting Claire out of her own side.

"The fare?!" she said happily as I placed her on the ground, looking around us. "Ooh, a ferris wheel!"

I laughed and took her hand, not daring to let her go in amongst all of these people.

It seemed like there were as many people as there were in La Push, Forks and Port Angeles combined, and all of them were running around, laughing and screaming. There were all different kinds of rides and games and animals, as well as about fifty different people in costume, walking around and handing out balloons to all of the children. Claire took a liking to a fairy, the poor girl completely covered in green face paint, who gave her a couple of balloons for contunuing to talk to her. Then, the two of us walked toward the ferris wheel, where there was a shorter line than most other places in the show ground.

"Hey, look!" Claire shouted, pointing over her shoulder.

I turned after her and smiled as I saw Jake walking over with Nessie on his shoulders. "Hey, guys. Didn't expect to see you here." he said once he was closer to us.

I smiled and said hello to them both, moving up with Claire as the line got shorter. "What brings you two here?"

"I just heard you thinking about it last night, and thought why not?" Jacob said, taking the rest of Renesmee's cotton candy and finishing it in one bite.

I laughed once. "Good idea."

"Are you coming on the ferris wheel?" Claire asked Nessie. Nessie nodded from Jacob's shoulders, gagging on her lollipop. She handed that to Jake, too.

"Gosh, Ness, you're going to _have_ to eat some carnival food...it's the best." Jacob told her, biting into the lollipop and making it come off its stick in his mouth.

Nessie jumped gracefully from Jacob's back, ignoring the raised eyebrows of people who had been watching, and crossed her arms. "I don't like it anymore than normal food..."

Jacob sighed and climbed into the same carriage as Claire and me with her.

"This is cozy..." Nessie murmured, sitting almost on top of Jacob in the tiny space as the carriage started to get lifted into the air.

If Jake and I had been normal humans, the carriage wouldn't be so close to exploding. There was plenty of room in the others where there were only four people -- normal-sized people.

"So, do you know if any of the other guys'll be showing up?" I asked Jacob after a minute or so, sitting back into the metal seat.

He shrugged casually. "Nope. I think Rachel said something about her and Paul coming down, but I can't be sure."

"Oh, how delightful it will be if we run into them." I joked. I was kind of getting sick of Paul's humour about how long it'll be until I get any action while Claire wasn't around. Emmett wasn't much better, so when the two of them were together, I tried to get out of their way.

"My family was going to come, but they obviously won't be able to..." Nessie said, pouting slightly as she looked up at the sky. The clouds were thin, and there were only patches of them -- the fare had gotten lucky today. I'd seen Nessie's parents in the sun, as well as her aunts and uncles and grandparents, and I knew enough to know that they wouldn't last a second without someone noticing they were beyond human in the middle of a sunny show ground. Nessie's skin had a nice, faint glow about it, but it wouldn't catch curious eyes too easily.

"Aw, is that it?!" Claire said loudly once the wheel had stopped and the operator opened our door. The man gave her a dissaproving look as I swung her up, onto my shoulders.

"Where to now, Claire-bear?" I asked, Jacob and Nessie still beside us.

She hummed to herself for a few seconds, then came up with her answer. "I wanna go see the animals..."

The four of us walked to the petting zoo, seeing Paul and Rachel on the way. They both looked quickly away from us when we made eye contact with them and continued to coo and talk soppily to each other, feeding the other cotton candy.

"Thank God..." Jacob muttered as Nessie and Claire ran into the petting zoo, gushing over the baby animals.

"Aw, Quil, look!" Claire giggled. She had picked up a little chicken and was holding it out to me. I took it in my arms, laughing at Claire and stroked its feathers, bending to my knees so she could, too. "We should get a chicken." she said.

I shook my head. "It'd get away in the forest."

She sighed and picked up another chicken so we had one each. "I could keep it in my room like I did with my bird."

"And then you could get in big trouble off your parents like you did when they found the bird."

She grinned mischeviously and let the chicken go to pick up a rabbit instead. "What about a bunny?"

I hesitated. "You know your parents don't want you having pets in the house..."

"But we could keep it in a cage out the back."

"But that's not nice for the bunny..." I said defensively. Being part animal myself, I took things like this a little too far.

She sighed and scratched the rabbit's head. "I know."

I let go of my chicken as well and scratched the rabbit. "Hey, as soon as you move out of your parent's house, I'll buy you a bunny, okay?" I told her, smiling.

She nodded eagerly. "Deal."

When the two of them were finished with the animals and Claire had ridden a pony, we made our way to the food stalls. Jacob and I ordered a tray of food each, and Claire just had some fries. Nessie sat at the table and talked to us all as we ate.

"Just...try this." Jacob said, holding out a piece of chicken to Nessie.

She gave him a look and turned the other way, smiling at a teenage boy who had been watching her for the last ten minutes.

"Nessie," Jacob warned, catching the boys eye and giving him a dangerous look. Nessie sighed and turned back to the table, taking the chicken from Jacob's fingers in her mouth and chewing it a couple of times. She stuck her tongue out in disgust and took a drink of Claire's water, though we knew she didn't like that, either.

"So what _do_ you want to eat?" Claire asked her, licking ketchup off her fingers.

Nessie smirked. "AB positive."

The three of us laughed and Jacob started growling when the boy from the other table started making his way to Nessie.

"Hey," he said, his hands in his pockets.

Nessie smiled and held her chin with her hand on the table. "Hi. I'm Renesmee."

"Jack." he said, smiling back.

Jacob cleared his throat and wrapped his arm around Nessie's shoulder, pulling her into him. Jack's eyes widened as he took Jacob in and then looked across to me and took a couple of steps back. "Umm..." he started, then he turned around and walked away.

Nessie laughed with Claire. "You've gotta stop doing that."

Jacob shrugged and kept eating. "Guys too old for you've gotta stop hitting on you."

"I'm not really four..." she muttered, elbowing him in his ribs.

Jacob looked up at me. "Once they get to look, like, thirteen, there're guys all over them."

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, trying not to think about how soon that was going to come for me with Claire. There might've been a whole six years to go, but she was already seven. The five years in which I'd known her had passed so quickly for me, and not just because I hadn't been aging throughout the time.

"Quil!" Claire broke me out of my thoughts by pulling on my sleeve. "Are you okay?"

"Mm-hm." I assured, taking my face out of my hands. "You finished eating?"

She smiled and nodded, letting the four of us leave the table.

"What're we doing now?" Jacob asked, taking Nessie's hand and walking with her, the two of them swinging their arms. Jacob and Nessie were changing their views toward each other already. He wasn't her brother anymore -- more like a really close friend. No matter how much Jacob pretended to be her boyfriend when other guys were hitting on her...

Nessie wanted to go on all of the scarier rides in the showground. She'd never been on a rollercoasted before, and there were a couple of tamer versions of them here. Claire was excited to go on them too, so the four of us settled in one seat on a bright orange ride, Claire clinging onto the safety bar in front of her.

"You scared, Claire?" Jacob asked, looking over Nessie to her.

Claire giggled, slightly hysterically, and nodded her head, making the other three of us laugh.

The ride started and the seat spun in circles, kinking our neck and blowing the girl's hair everywhere. Especially Nessie's. Rosalie and Bella had something against her cutting her curls off, so it was past her waist and she hardly ever wore it up.

Claire's high-pitched screams filled her ears and the four of us laughed until the ride had finished. I made the stupid idea of sitting on the very end of them, so the three of them were all pushed up against me by the end of it.

"Sorry, Quil." Nessie said, jumping out the side of the seat once the bar had been removed from in front of us.

I laughed. "That's okay, Ness."

Jacob helped Claire out while I waited for there to be enough room for me to climb out the side.

"That was so _fun!_" Claire screamed, clapping her hands together.

I laughed and caught her as she stumbled. "You're dizzy."

She nodded and took my hand, letting me pull her straight.

When the sun started falling, the four of us left. I was relieved that I had asked her parents if I could keep her at my house tonight. They'd be pissed at me if they knew we'd be getting home so late after Claire having so much sugar.

"Bye, Nessie!" Claire said, jumping up, into her best friend's arms. She then did the same to Jacob, kissing them both on the cheek. Jake set her on the ground and took Nessie's hand after saying goodbye to me, walking in the direction of his Rabbit. I lifted Claire into my truck and strapped her in, walking around to my side and getting in myself.

"Thanks, Quil. I had fun today." she said as I put the truck in reverse and concentrated on not running over any children.

"I had fun, too, Claire-bear." I said, mussing her hair.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter 7**

**CPOV**

I got my warmest parka off the floor of my closet and pulled it on, doing all the buttons up. My boots were waiting at the front door for when Quil came to pick me up.

It was Sam and Emily's daughter's first birthday birthday today, and Quil had said he'd take me, because my parents were working. I was staying at his house tonight.

There was a knock at the door, and I ran as fast as I could to answer it.

"Quil!" I exploded, jumping up and giggling as he caught me in his big, warm arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and giggled as he kissed the corner of my left eye.

"Hey, Claire-bear." he said, walking me into my bedroom. "How was your night?"

I pouted. Jacob had asked Quil to go on patrol last night, and I'd had to stay with Seth and the girl he had Imprinted with. Her name was Sandra, and she was a nice girl. She got along with Kim well, because they were both into makeup and doing Nessie's and my own hair. "I missed you."

He laughed and hugged me. "I missed you, too."

Quil helped me do my hair, then I pulled on my boots and he drove me to Sam and Emily's house.

"Hey, Quil!" Embry and Seth were already at the food table in the backyard when we got there. Quil, holding my hand, pulled me over to them.

"Hey, guys. What's happening?"

"Jacob just got threatened by Edward...he's taken off for a few minutes." Embry said casually.

"What did he say?" I asked them, grabbing the side of Quil's jeans so he couldn't get away from me.

Seth shrugged. "Something about ripping all of Jake's fur out and cutting his tail off...we think he wants to make him a pink polar bear."

Quil snorted. "No," I said, "What did Jacob say to Edward?"

Embry and Seth exchanged a glance. "He didn't really say anything...he was just standing with Renesmee and all of a sudden Edward started growling and told him off...Jacob walked into the forest after that."

I looked over to where Nessie was standing, talking to her father. She looked frustrated. She was talking with ther hands a lot. Edward looked like he was listening to, but he also looked upset. I narrowed my eyes and Alice came over to talk to us.

"Jacob's been thinking about Renesmee...differently since she started looking, like, sixteen. Edward's not handling it very well, even though he knows Jake can't help it."

"Ah," Quil said, biting his bottom lip. "So glad...not everyone can read minds."

Alice grinned. "I'll bet you are."

"Ah, I'm so sick of your bets, Alice." Embry said frustratedly, kicking at the dirt. Alice smiled mischeviously and went to talk to Sandra, Maddie, Kim and Emily, who was holding baby Hannah. I didn't even bother getting into that one. No matter what it was about, Embry always agreed to Alice's bets. Everyone else knew not to by now, because, of course, she was going to win, but Embry hadn't exactly grasped that yet.

Jacob came back, out of the forest after ten more minutes. Nessie started talking to him again, but Jacob seemed cautious the whole time. I felt sorry for him, and jealous for Renesmee. She had someone who thought she was beautiful. My mom had said not very many people found people like that. I didn't want to grow up, living with a guy that didn't like me.

There were humans, like the Imprintees, parents of some of the wolves, and Charlie at the party, as well as the wolves and vampires, so there were more cakes than usual. The wolves usually ate nine by themselves when they were holding back, but Emily had cooked thirteen, with help from me. I had found a new hobby -- baking with my aunt. I was pretty good at it, too.

"Hey, Claire." Nessie said, finally breaking away from Jacob to talk to me. Nessie was six now. She looked about sixteen or seventeen, though. She was still as beautiful as ever, and her hair had been straightened so it hung down her back without its usual waves and curls.

"Hi, Nessie." I hugged her back as she bent down to me and kissed my cheek. "How've you been?"

She grinned. "Alright. My dad's being a little rough at the moment, but..." we both turned to see Edward shrug at her.

Jacob stood behind her. "Hey, Claire-bear. How's it going?"

"Better than you've been..." I smirked at his face.

He rolled his eyes. "He'll get over it."

Nessie smiled up at him and took his hand. I held back a gag. Romance had always disgusted me, just like any other nine year old girl.

Quil came up behind me and joined the conversation. "You're getting a look." he said so quietly I couldn't really make it out.

Jacob grinned. "Yeah, I know."

We stayed at the party until eleven, when I was falling asleep in my cake. Quil carried be back to his car and started a drive back to his house, keeping a casual conversation on the way.

"So it looks like Jacob and Nessie are going to get together now..."

"Yeah."

"Do you think that's weird?" he looked down at me as he waited for my answer.

I shook my head. "Not at all. He Imprinted on her. That's how it's supposed to be."

He grinned. "I was thinking the same thing, Claire-bear."

He carried me to my room in his apartment once we'd gotten there. The whole building was usually quiet, but a new girl had moved in downstairs, and it sounded like she was having another one of her parties. Quil pulled my face further into his neck as we walked past, muffling the sound a little bit more.

He put me in my bed and pulled the covers over me. "Sleep tight, Claire-bear." he whispered, kissing the corner of my left eye out of habit. I'd started that tradition after hurting it on Nessie's elbow.

"'Night, Quil." I said, suddenly sitting up. "Where's my Quil doll?!"

"Oh..." Quil stood up and walked back into the living room, where he'd put my bags when we'd come inside. He came back within a minute and handed me my doll. "There you go, Claire-bear."

"Thank you, Quil." I said, kissing his cheek. I let him tuck me in again and rolled over, toward my window, about to sleep.

I'd been dozing on and off for a couple of hours, blocking out the noise from downstairs, when I heard a car door slam, right under my window. I looked down, out of the glass and noticed Embry's red car. I frowned. It wasn't like Embry to be out at this time of night. He was alone. I wondered where Maddie was.

Because I hadn't been actually sleeping, I wasn't groggy at all. I heard Quil bolt to the door as soon as Embry knocked on it, only half a minute later than when he'd been downstairs. I considered getting out of my bed and seeing what was wrong, then thought I should just go back to sleep and let them work it out. Then I heard how upset Embry sounded and ran into the living room.

"Uncle Em?" I asked hesitantly. He was sitting on the floor at Quil's feet, his face in his hands as Quil stood over him, looking upset.

"Hey Claire." Quil said gently. He held out his arms and I walked forward, letting him scoop me up and hold me. "Embry...do you wanna talk to us about something."

"Maddie..." Embry sniffed, rubbing his arms. "This is sooo stupid. I can't believe myself!"

I'd never seen Embry cry before. I'd never seen anyone in the pack cry before, except for Leah when she'd found out Kim was pregnant. Apparently she had cried when Emily had gotten the news, too, but I hadn't been around her that much back then. Quil said it was just because she couldn't have children while she was still phasing.

Quil sat on the couch behind Embry and tapped his shoulder. I climbed off my best friend's lap and stood at Embry's shoulder, shaking him gently. "Embry? Come and sit with us."

He swallowed and nodded, getting up slowly and sitting on the other side of the couch, pulling his legs up underneath his chin.

"What's goin' on, Em?" Quil asked quietly.

Embry rubbed his eyes, which were almost bright red, and shook his head, as if telling himself he shouldn't be crying. "Maddie...told me we were getting too serious. She said we should stop seeing each other."

"Oh...Em..." Quil, leaned forward and put a comforting hand on his best friend's shoulder. I pouted and climbed forward on the couch, giving him a hug.

"Three years, Quil!" Embry said, his eyes widening. "Three whole years! And I'd told her I'd loved her and everything!" he groaned and put his face in his hands again. "I've never been in a relationship that long...I thought...we'd go somewhere..."

Quil sighed. "I know, Em. I thought you would, too."

Embry was shaking so badly I was wondering if he was going to phase. Quil didn't seem too worried about it, though. "You know, this wouldn't have happened if I'd Imprinted! I'm not gonna be the last one, Quil."

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was telling Quil this, even when he knew Quil hadn't Imprinted, either. And then there were all the younger wolves. Only a couple of them had found their Imprints, and there were over ten.

"Embry...you know some of us aren't ever going to find their Imprints." Quil said, sounding sadder for his friend than he had yet.

Embry's eyes were swollen when he looked back up at us. "I'm going to walk around every city on this planet until I find her. She'll be here somewhere. I know she's out there somewhere."

Quil nodded a couple of times, perhaps just trying to calm him down. "I know you'll find her."

Embry told us he was tired after that, but he didn't seem to want to get out of Jacob's door.

"Claire-bear...is it okay if he sleeps in your room? He won't fit on the couch, and I'm not too sure of making him drive home in his state." Quil's eyebrows pulled together as he watched Embry sniff into his hands.

"That's okay." I said quietly, walking off to get my stuffed Quil from my bed. I wasn't looking forward to spending a night on that couch...I knew it wasn't that confortable just from sitting on it.

Five minutes later, Embry was snoring in my usual place and I was standing in the hall, watching him enviously. I sighed and went to turn for the couch, but Quil caught my hand. "You don't have to sleep on the couch, Claire-bear. You can sleep with me, if you want."

I smiled and turned back to face his room. "Thank you, Quil."

Quil never got cold, so he'd had the window open until I got in there. It was a lot colder than the rest of the rooms in the house. I jumped into his bed and burrowed under the rarely-used blankets, my little Quil dog still in my arms. Quil grinned at me as he shut the window and climbed in the other side, under only one of the blankets.

I was still shivering after three minutes. I finally decided that was enough and rolled over, pressing myself against Quil's side to keep warm. He chuckled a few times with his eyes closed and wrapped his long arms around me, hugging me until I finally fell asleep.

*******

"So where's Embry gonna live now?"

It was Wednesday afternoon. Quil had just picked me up from school, like he always did on Wednesdays, and we were out at the ice cream shop. I was licking away at my double rainbow cone, while Quil finished up with his cookies and cream bucket.

Quil sighed heavily. "He put all of his money into buying that apartment for Maddie to live with him in, and she kicked him out, so he kind of has no where...I offered him your room, if that's okat with you, Claire-bear?"

I nodded. "Of course it is. I'm sad for Embry."

"Me too." Quil looked down at his ice cream bucket and pouted when he noticed there wasn't anything else to eat. I poked one of the scoops of rainbow off my cone and into his bucket. He smiled and mussed my hair, knowing I couldn't get through a whole double cone by myself, anyway.

"Nessie's birthday's tommorrow." I suddenly remembered. Her birthday was only two days after Hannah's, and a month after mine.

Quil's eyes widened. "Oh, crap! I was gonna stop in to the bookshop and get her her present this morning...will it be closed now?!"

I shrugged. I didn't go shopping by myself, and hardly kept track of the time when I wasn't at school, so I couldn't tell Quil anymore than he already knew. He checked his watch. "We have ten minutes. We're gonna have to run!"

I giggled and stood from my chair, taking his outstretched hand and running out the door and down the street, dodging the people on the sidewalk. He was going a lot slower than I knew he could run. He didn't want any people getting suspicious of his speed. I always had the most fun with Quil. He was the person I loved most in the world, just like I'd told him multiple times before.

My mother hardly had any time to spend with me, as I was usually sleeping when she was home from work, and I knew my father wouldn't spend much time with me even if he _did_ have more time away from his job. That didn't mean I didn't love them. I loved them just as much as I loved Kim and Nessie and Aunty Emily and Uncle Sam, who I saw just as much. Quil, however was always there for me, whenever I needed him. He was my best friend, and I knew, for some odd reason, I was his, too.

We just made it to the bookshop and Quil bought the book Nessie had requested when he had asked her what she wanted. We were both drenched from out heads to our toes, and my feet were freezing in their gum boots. I wondered why Quil had insisted I wear such a big jacket to school with it raining so hard -- it weighed almost as much as I did myself, once it had absorbed all the water it could.

Quil and I ran back to his truck, passing the music shop he had worked out for the last few years. I felt bad when I realized he spent all of his free time with me. He had patrol on half of the days of the week, then he had a job once every week day while I was in school, except for Wednesdays, at the only music shop in town. And he still managed to spend all of the time I was conscious with me.

I was still laughing as I strapped myself into his truck and he started driving, putting his arm around me to keep me as warm as he could --his car heater hadn't worked when he'd gotten it.

*******

Nessie's party was heaps of fun. One of the best I've ever been to (my other favorites were hers, too.) But a big part of the reason for this was because of the effort her aunt put into them all.

Alice had wrapped every tree surrounding the house in lights and streamers in Nessie's favorite colors. There was music blasting from a room on the top floor, where Bella said was Edward's old room. Apparently there was a really good stereo up there.

The only bad thing about it was when Nessie and Jacob decided to have their first kiss and her father found them. I seriously thought Jake was about to die. Edward got over it, though.

"Oops," Nessie bit her lip with a guilty expression. She laughed nervously.

"How was it?" Quil asked, grinning.

She narrowed her eyes, then smiled. "Brilliant!" she laughed and went off to dance with Toby and Mathew -- Kim and Jared's son.

Jacob then drifted to the food table, where Quil and Embry were standing, eating. Quil; happily. Embry; not so much.

"Hey, guys!" Jake said, wrapping his arms around their shoulders and pulling them into him. "How are we all today?"

Quil snorted. "Nothing compared to you...what're you on, and where can I get it?" he joked, pushing Jacob's shoulder.

Jacob sighed and kept smiling. I was starting to get worried about him. Nessie joined him again and they sat by themselves on the other side of the party, away from everyone else for almost an hour, until Alice dragged them back, insisting they'd enjoy her party more than each other's company if they joined in.

"Claire! I need help!" she yelled, waving me over.

I laughed and joined the three of them in the middle of Alice's portable dance floor.

"Dance with Jacob," she said, cocking her head in his direction. "We have to split them up before Edward rips out all the trees Esme's been looking out for. I don't want to dance with him."

I snickered and joined Jacob, copying Alice's dance moves with Nessie.

I didn't know how it happened, but, within five minutes, Jacob and Nessie were facing each other again and I was with little Alice. I frowned in confusion, but she only shook her head and started spinning in a circle so fast she looked like a blur. I sighed and walked back to where Quil was trying to talk some sense into Embry. Seth had now joined them and had an encouraging arm around his depressed friend.

"Seriously, she wasn't even that spectacular." Quil said.

Embry raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

Seth snorted and Quil gagged, and I wondered what the hell they were talking about.

"But there's someone else out there for you!" Seth said, going over the top with a big wave of his arm. Embry kept looking at the ground.

"Uncle Em? I think you're going to find your Imprint." I said, clasping my hands together and giving him a small smile. I hugged his long legs.

"Thanks, Claire-bear." he said, mussing my hair half-heartedly.

I giggled and released him, taking Quil's hand, instead. "You have to dance with me, Quil!"

He laughed and picked me up, carrying me to where Jacob, Nessie and Alice were still dancing. Jasper drifted to his wife just as we joined them and they flew ever-so-gracefully around the other four of us, not even looking away from each other's eyes to check where they were going, though the two of them stayed on the dance floor the whole time.

I couldn't really dance, being in Quil's arms, so I just waved my hands around above our heads stupidly. Emmett laughed and started doing the same thing, earning an unimpressed look from Rose.

"You're a fantabulous dancer, Quil." I said, putting my arms around his neck like Nessie did to Jake as a slower song came on.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah...."

I made him dance with me until the sun went down, then we all sung Happy Birthday to Nessie. Alice had put up big, rainbow lanters in all the trees in their yard and they shone down on us all, making us turn different colors. It only gave the Indians a tint, so we looked kind of sick when the lights turned green, but the vampires were completely colored. They looked like they'd been painted.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY NESSIE!!" I screamed when everyone had gone quiet for a moment.

Quil laughed and shook his head, throwing me over his shoulder. I clung around his neck as he walked toward the mansion. "We'd better get you home before your father kills me, Claire-bear."

I sighed. "_Fiiiiine_." I turned around to everyone still in the yard. "Bye, everybody!"

"See you, Claire!" Nessie yelled, waving from where she was talking to Jacob and Embry. Everyone else said a goodbye back and Quil took me home.

______________

**Mm-hm, so I'll post the next one on later today. And again, I'm sorry for these three being two days late. I wanted to run down and chuck my computer in the lake... Please review! Tell me any mistakes I might've made or whatnot, as well. It'll make my heart soar.**

**_Happy birthday Asha!!_ (even though it's not today, I love you!)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	9. Chapter Eight

**I'm baaaack... Heya! This was supposed to come on two days after the three that I posted this morning, but because my stupid account wouldn't let me post them until this morning, it meant that I'd have to wait until Wednesday to post this one, which I could because I'm going to MELBOURNE FOR A SCHOOL EXCURSION! AAAHHHHH!! Yeah, so this is going up now.**

**Thank you so, so, SO, SOOOOO much to my awesome reviewers, pm, ****90sgurl and Asha123 for their reviews from just this morning! I could hug you guys so tight your rib cages would break!**

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**Chapter 8**

**QPOV**

"Hey, Claire-bear!" I smiled down at her bright face as she opened the door. She looked like she'd just woken, but she didn't seem so tired. She ran out and hugged my legs.

"Missed you!" she said, kissing my cheek as I lifted her into my arms.

"And you know I always miss you." I kissed the corner of her eye and carried her into her bedroom. "Now, there was something special on today...but I can't remember what it was..."

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "I'm not five anymore, Quil."

I laughed and mussed her hair. "Naw, you're growing too quickly."

"You don't want a best friend closer to your normal age?" she suddenly looked worried. "I _am_ your best friend, aren't I, Quil?"

I laughed and gave her a hug. "Of course you are. But only if I'm yours." she was mine anyway. No matter how hard she tried to get rid of me.

"You know you are." she said into my shoulder. "So what are we doing today?"

I let her go and looked around her room. Well, I think you should put on some warmer clothes, because it's windy outside, and we're gonna be outdoors all day..."

"Okey dokey." she said happily, crossing the room to her closet and pulling out her warmest jacket. She pulled it over her long-sleeved top, holding the sleeves so they wouldn't get pulled up, and grabbed a pair of gloves and mittens from her top draw. She put the gloved on first, then the mittens and smiled up at me. "Think I'll be warm enough once I've got my boots on?"

I smirked. "Maybe..."

It was still August, but it felt like it could be February. The wind hadn't stopped since late last night, and it was so cold I could slightly feel it if I was really concentrating. It still didn't bother me at all, though.

I drove her to the beach, and her eyes lit up. "Are we going to our secret place?!"

I nodded. "I packed us a picnic. Full of every type of junk I could think of." I smirked, not even thinking about how much money I'd spent on all of Claire's favorite foods.

I piggy-backed her through the thick part of small forest and onto the little beach we'd discovered almost seven years before.

"Ah, this is going to be so cool!" she said, seeing the picnic basket by the bench we'd made that I dropped off earlier.

I laughed. "There's a blanket in it, so we won't have to sit on the pebbles, but I didn't put it down 'cause it probably would've blown away."

She jumped off my back, landing on the ground heavily, and skipped off toward the basket, opening it and taking everything in inside it. "Ooh, I love you, Quil!"

I felt happiness explode inside me. "Love you too, Claire-bear."

I helped her spread out the picnic blanket, then we both started filling up on the junk food inside the basket. Claire ate so much I thought she was going to pop. She seemed happy, though. That was all that mattered to me.

When she was finished eating, she made me phase so we could play 'Wolves and Indians' again. She loved it, particularly because she'd made it up herself.

"Ahahahahahahah!" she sung, just like they did on the movies as she paraded around the tiny patch of sand with the pointiest stick she could find.

I followed after her in wolf form, bouncing slightly. She kept making her little noise and turned around suddenly. "GOTCHA!" she screamed, lunging with the stick above her head. I knew she wouldn't bring the stick down on me, but I ran the other way, anyway, letting her chase me. "Come back here!" she laughed, throwing the stick beside her and tackling my foot.

I pretended to fall to the ground. She laughed evilly and climbed up my big form, scratching the spot behind my frong leg and making my back one go crazy. She laughed harder.

I took her home before it got too cold for her. I didn't want her getting sick.

"Did you enjoy your birthday?" I asked her as we stopped for lunch.

She nodded happily. She hadn't stopped smiling since we got to the beach. "It was the best birthday _ever!"_

I laughed and took a sip of her drink. "I don't know about the best _ever..._"

"Quil, do you know what modest is?" she asked me, suddenly very proper.

I frowned. "Yeah...yeah, I know what being modest means."

"I think you're modest." she said, smiling.

"You know what, Claire?" I asked, tapping her nose.

"What?"

I grinned, making her smile wider back. "You're modest, too. Because of how you act when people tell you you're pretty."

She looked at the table. "M'not..."

"See?" I asked, brushing her hair. "You're gorgeous."

*******

**CPOV**

I skipped into school, meeting Kelsi and Sally at our usual spot beneath the biggest tree at the front of the building. "Hey, guys!" I said happily.

"Hi, Claire." Kelsi said, smiling while Sally ran her fingers through her hair, trying to smooth out the top. She was lucky -- she already had dead straight hair. I got loose waves through mine sometimes. "Hapy birthday for yesterday."

They both held out hand made cards for me. I took them, smiling and read them before putting them safetly in my bag. "Thank you."

"So what'd you do yesterday?" Sally asked, giving up on her hair and fixing her back pack up.

"Quil took me to First Beach for a picnic." I told them, careful not to mention anything about our secret spot. I didn't want anyone else in the whole world to know about it, and I trusted Quil not to tell anyone, too.

"That's nice." Kelsi said, narrowing her eyes at Quil's mention.

My friends didn't understand how close I was with Quil. They didn't see how a twenty-year-old guy (that's how old they still thought he was) could be my best friend. And I knew they suspected something was wrong with him. How many six foot five guys do you see everyday? Not to mention Quil's muscles. I'd caught the two of them perving on him and stopped myself from calling them disgusting for thinking about him that way. He'd always just be a friend.

After school, Kelsi and Sally invited themselves over. They did that sometimes, because they knew my parents were never home after school. We sat in my hammock and talked about anything we could think of.

"Ooh, I really like that Owen guy that's in the year above us!" Kelsi said, rocking back in her spot.

Sally snorted. "You can't date sixth graders! That's gross!"

Kelsi narrowed her eyes and ran her fingers through her black hair. "I'm older than you. I can."

I sighed and looked out my window, a lot more interested in the trees I looked at every day than the conversation topic they were on.

I definitely wasn't the average ten-year-old girl. While every other girl in my year was whispering conspicuously about the guy they liked right in front of them, I was hanging around with a pack of giant dogs, and sometimes blood sucking monsters. And I had no interest whatsoever about giggling to my two best girlfriends about the boy sitting in the row in front of us. I'd never found anyone attractive like that before, and I didn't see how I ever would. It was kind of gross...

"What do you think, Claire?" Kelsi asked, leaning back against my pillow and holding her knees.

"Hm?" I asked, looking up at the two of them.

"Do you like Danny Triversky?" Sally asked again, narrowing her eyes.

I frowned. "That guy from Kentucky?" I didn't have to think about it after they nodded. "Uhh...no, I don't."

"Aw, you don't like anyone!" Sally said, picking up my other pillow and throwing it at me.

I giggled and put my hands up in front of my face, almost getting knocked out of the hammock and onto the floor.

Sally laughed. "Lucky that matress's there."

I sat back up straight and narrowed my eyes as Kelsi studied my Quil doll. "Claire, I thought you'd grown out of teddies?"

Sally giggled as I snatched it back from her protectively. "This is my favorite. That's why the others are all on my shelf."

Kelsi rolled her eyes. "I don't see what's so special about it."

"Quil bought it for me!" I said, subconsciously scratching the dog behind his ear.

Sally grinned. "Ooh, Quil!"

I frowned at her and swiped at her with the pillow, making her fall off the hammock and onto the matress. "Lucky that matress's there." I said, trying not to laugh.

There was a knock on my bedroom door, and I felt the two of them freeze. They never asked my parents if they could spend the afternoons here, and they knew if my dad found out I, and maybe even them, would get into trouble.

"Relax, guys." I said casually, smiling at them. "Come in!"

Quil walked in, smiling at the three of us and sat on the chair in the corner of my room. "What's happening, guys?" he asked, leaning against the wall.

"We were just talking about you." Kelsi said, acting guilty.

Quil grinned. "Too bad I wasn't here for it."

I rolled my eyes at him. Of course he'd heard everything, which hadn't been much. Kelsi just thought she had to try to be sexy whenever the opposte sex was with her. So far it wasn't working well for her.

"So why are you two here again?" Quil asked them, taking a seat on the floor because the chair was too small for him.

"I live here now." Sally muttered.

"I live out the back now." Kelsi giggled.

Quil shook his head. "I'm gonna stop coming."

"Why are you here, Quillikins?" Kelsi asked, batting her eyelashes. I frowned at her, recieving a questioning look from her. _'What?!'_ she mouthed.

He ignored her question and stood up again, perhaps hoping to get out of my room as quickly as he could. "I'm going to raid your fridge. Embry said he was dropping by. Tell me when you two are going home, and I'll give you lifts if you want."

"Thank you, Quilly." the two of them chorused.

Quil gave me a last look, then shut the door behind him.

"Ah, you two are gonna get married!" Sally said excitedly, clapping her hands.

"Quil?!" I said, wishing they'd get off the subject. Not to mention he could hear everything that was happening in the room.

Kelsi screwed her face up. "Ew, Sally, that's dis_gus_ting! He's, like, thirty!"

"He's not _that_ old." Sally fought back.

The two of them went on and on like this for twenty minutes before I left the room. If they noticed, they didn't say anything to hold me back.

I found Quil sitting with Embry at the table. The two of them had an amused look on their faces, though I could tell Embry was still upset.

"Hey, Em." I said, sitting in between them and taking a biscuit. "How're you doing?"

"Okay, thanks, Claire." he said, taking three and eating them all at once.

Quil grimmaced. "You know, when you say that, people know you're lying."

Embry shrugged. "But it wouldn't sound right if I said I was going badly..."

Quil stopped talking about it and turned to me, instead. "When's Kelly going home?"

I grinned. Kelsi and Sally had gotten the nickname 'Kelly' after they had started coming around regularly. Quil said it just saved a lot of time, but I think it was just because he liked to annoy them.

"No idea. They usually leave around dark...they said their parents are coming to get them, though."

"Ah kay," he said, taking a couple of biscuits and eating them slower than Embry, who was now face-down on the table. He sat up and looked at us both.

"I know what to do now!"

"What?!" I asked, trying to calm down having jumped back at his outburst.

He looked unsure, and Quil looked ready to tackle him, but I was interested in what he had to say. "I'm going on a holiday."

"Where?" Quil asked, not sure where he was going with this.

"Where're the most women?"

"Ah," I said, nodding. "I see."

"Hey, I'll just save up as much money as I can for a year, then I'll buy the cheapest ticket out of here and just start circling the globe." Embry said, nodding to himself. "And I'll come back when I find her."

"

What if it takes a century?" Quil asked him, frowning.

Embry shrugged. "I'll come back in a century."

"But none of us will be here...except the ones who didn't Imprint. The rest of us will've died with our Imprints." Quil said, trying to talk reason into his friend.

I frowned at Quil. He was talking as if _he_ had an Imprint. There was no way he could have. He would've told me as soon as it had happened. He caught me in his peripheral vision and his eyes widened. "I mean, those of them who've got Imprints will've gone...you know..."

Embry gave him an are-you-serious?! look without paying any attention to me. "I'd rather go out there and find my Imprint than stay here and wait for nothing. At least when I found her, I wouldn't care about anything else! That means I won't be lost and upset when I come back here to a whole other generation of wolves!"

Quil looked offended. I didn't really blame him. From what we'd been hearing from Embry's words, he'd probably understood that Embry didn't care nearly as much for the people that were as close as his siblings as the woman he hadn't met yet.

"Fine. Whatever." Quil said, standing up and walking to me. "But I know that if _I_ were to come back to _my_ family and find them all replaced by their sons, or even _grandsons_, I think I'd be pretty upset with myself!"

Embry stood up too, pushing his chair in forcefully. "You know that's not what I meant, Quil! I just want to find my Imprint!"

Quil's hands were shaking, much more than Embry's. "I don't care, Em. Go ahead and find some person out there that may or may not fall for you the same way you fall for her."

Embry sighed, his hands starting to shake a little more. He closed his eyes for a moment, then walked toward the door. "See you at the apartment."

Quil looked down at me sadly. I hugged him and felt his warm arms wrap around me, too. "I'm sorry, Quil." I said into his chest.

He sighed and rubbed my back. "Thanks, Claire-bear."

*******

**QPOV**

I slammed the door louder than I really had to, just to let Embry know I was home. If he wasn't sleeping, he had time to figure out what he'd say for me.

I found him in the hall as I walked to the bathroom.

"Quil--" he started, walking forward before I could slam the door in his face. I chucked my towel and pajama pants on the bathroom tiles and stopped halfway through the door, looking at him with my eyebrows raised. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what I said at Claire's house."

"Okay," I said, starting back into the bathroom. He caught my arm.

"You didn't accept my apology!"

I sighed. "I do accept. I'm just a bit annoyed. I'll get over it."

"And I was thinking," Embry continued, keeping my from another minute of showering. "I'm gonna wait a couple more years until I leave...just because I wanna stay with the pack for a while longer. I know it'd kill me if I left you guys with a real short goodbye."

"Thanks, Embry." I said, giving in to a quick embrace like the rest of the pack gave once something caused enough emotion through us.

He smiled once before ducking into his room, leaving me to take a shower at last.

**************

**Okey dokey, I hope you all liked it! I'll post the next chapter on next Monday like always unless something comes up like the plane crashing or something. *hyperventilating* Wish me luck with my first ever plane ride! I expect a ton of reviews when I get back ;P**

**Chlowie, xo**


	10. Chapter Nine

**Sup?! Yes, I made it back to good old Newcastle from Melbourne without the plane crashing and everything. I was absolutely crapping myself getting on it, though. My friend didn't help, explaining to me that we were leaving on the 9-9-09, which, upside down, is the Devil's number, and returning on the 11th of September. It wasn't so bad once we actually started flying, though. And I did have a lot of fun.**

**Just saying a quick thank you to my reviewers since I posted the last chapters, ****allisonlang** **and** **brookeyhoneybee****. And, also, to all of the people who added my story to their favourites and alerts list. I love you guys!**

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**Chapter 9**

"Happy birthday, Quil." Lisa said, walking to the other side of the desk and leaning over it to me.

"Thanks, Leece." I said distractedly, sorting through three boxes at once. She looked dissapointed for a second, then composed herself.

"I forgot to get you something..."

"That's alright." I shrugged it off. "I didn't expect you to."

She grinned slightly and sat on the counter, right next to my shoulder. I wondered if she would ever take a hint. How long would it be before she realized I didn't pay her any attention when she was acting like this? "But I still feel guilty."

I stood as she went to brush my arm and walked to the many racks of CDs, filling them according to genre and in alphabetical order. Lisa continued to sit on the counter and flicked her hair back a little too casually. "So...do you have anything planned for this afternoon?"

"Yeah...I'm picking Claire up from school, then we're spending the rest of the day together. We're going out for dinner and stuff..."

She snorted. "That little twelve-year-old?"

"Yeah..." I said, as if I had no idea what was funny.

Everyone who worked with me, and half of our customers, knew who Claire was. I was constantly talking about her when she wasn't with me, and I knew people were sick of it. They had been on my first day. I just couldn't stop.

"So what's so special about Claire?" Lisa asked, leaning forward and pushing the sides of her chest together with her upper arms.

I looked up at her, wondering what I could say to cover up my mysterious over-liking for Claire. "I don't know, she's just...Claire."

Lisa narrowed her eyes. "Have you ever had a girlfriend, Quil?"

"Yeah..."

"And how old was she?"

"My age -- oh!" I laughed a couple of times nervously. "No, Lisa, it's not like _that..._eww."

She nodded slowly a couple of times. "So...do you have a girlfriend now?"

"No...and I'm not really looking." At all, more like...

She pouted. "My boyfriend broke up with me last night."

I sighed mentally and resisted telling her to shut up and stop dropping me hints. I went for the sympathetic friend, instead. "Sorry, Leece."

"That's okay." she sighed, leaning forward. I could feel her looking at me from the tops of her eyes. "I just...I can't believe it's over. We were together for two years."

"And you're looking for another relationship so quickly?"

"Oh, no...no, I was just looking for a fling, you know?" she said, throwing her hands up on the word 'fling'.

I frowned. "I'm...not into that kind of thing."

"Oh, I know!" she said, covering herself up after the denial. "I was just wondering about...you know your friend that used to come in all the time?"

"Seth?" I asked, remembering who had been in that I'd known from the pack.

"No...but he was alright, too. No...I meant the _really_ tall one. Not the tall Seth one...the...Jack?" she was obviously trying really hard to think about who it was. And it didn't give me anymore hints with 'the really tall one'. We were all over six-three. The only way I knew who she was talking about was the name at the end.

"Oh, Jacob!"

"Yeah," she said, nodding quickly. "Him. He was really good looking!"

"Well, that's gonna boost my confidence..." I muttered, ignoring the grin she got from my sarcasm. "Uhh...Jake got a girlfriend. Nessie. They've been together for a while now."

"Oh..." she pouted again, then lightened up once more. "Well, what about Seth?"

"Naw, he's taken. Her name's Sandra." I told her, wondering if anyone else from the pack had come in to visit me at work.

"Do you have any other friends?" she asked me desperately. "Any other ones that _don't_ have a girlfriend?"

"Uhh..." I remembered Embry, convinced he was leaving to find his Imprint. He wouldn't do. He still hadn't left yet, even though he had said he was a couple of months ago. "I have a couple, but I'll have to ask them. I'll get them to drop in next week when I'm working, 'kay?"

"Ah 'kay," she said, smiling sweetly at me. "So what're their names?"

"Mmm...Collin and Brady?"

"And how old are they?" she asked.

"A little younger than me." I was so sick of all of her questions and wondered why the hell she wanted a boyfriend so badly. This didn't sound like she wanted just a fling. I didn't question her though, and swore once I checked my watch. A woman in the front row gave me a dirty look. "I have to meet Claire!"

Lisa watched me change out of my work shirt, making me uncomfortable between taking it off and putting the next one on. "Quil?" she asked as I walked out from behind the counter.

"What?" I asked, tapping my foot impatiently.

She grinned slyly. "Do all of your friends have abs as good as yours?"

I pulled my eyebrows together. "Uhh...yeah. Yeah, we're all built the same, basically."

"Somethin' weird with you Quileute boys!" she laughed.

I laughed with her, picking up my pace again. "You have no idea..."

*******

**CPOV**

Almost everyone was gone. I waited out the front of the school, sitting on their unstable gate, underneath the only tree by the road. I quickly got sick of this position and moved, to the middle of the road while there were no cars coming. There weren't usually any driving down the street before and after school, so I looked up as I heard a loud one coming down toward me.

It stopped right next to me, on the wrong side for the direction it was going. Quil stuck his head out the window. "You just scared the freaking _hell_ out of me, Claire! Get in."

I smirked and climbed in the passenger's side, ignoring the angry tone to his voice as I leaned across and kissed his cheek. He kissed the corner of my left eye, as he always did, and I sat back in my seat, waiting for him to start talking.

"Happy birthday,'' I said as we started driving.

"Just wait for me to get my heart working again..." he murmured, breathing deeply.

I grimmaced. "Sorry, Quil."

He sighed and leaned his head back against the seat, for a moment not looking at the road. I didn't worry. Nothing dangerous had even come close while I was spending time with him in the past. "S'okay. How was your day?"

I began babbling at full speed, all about how Kelsi had hooked up with a guy the other night at and how he had showed up at their school at lunch and asked her out. I didn't agree with this stuff at all, especially since she was just thirteen, but she was my friend and there wasn't that many more at my school, so I stuck with her and Sally. Apparently it was the only talk of the school at the moment, and I knew Quil would see why, having known how many people were in each year.

"So, it all started at one of those _fantastic_ parties I'm always invited to, but I'm never allowed to go to."

"You're twelve." he told me again.

I sighed. "I know, and I don't really _want_ to go, but it's kinda hard, telling my friends that I can't go because my best friend's an over-protective giant wolf man."

He laughed. "Yeah, I can't see you enjoying yourself at one of those parties...the only people who really _do_ show up are slutty fourteen, fifteen and sixteen-year-olds..."

"How old were you when you stopped going to them?" I asked him, smiling slightly.

He hesitated. "Sixteen..."

"And was that because you were 'too old and responsible', or because you exploded into a mass of fur and pointy teeth?"

He laughed loudly. "Aw, Claire-bear. And where the hell did the 'old and responsible' thing come from? You don't know me at all!"

"Sarcasm." I told him.

He chuckled a couple of times, turning onto a street with a park in. "Now, I was planning to have a picnic here with you, but we're going out for dinner instead, so I thought that might be a bad idea."

"I don't know why..." I murmured. "It's not like you're going to fill up anytime soon."

"But you will." he said, helping me out of the truck and taking my hand once he'd set me down on the ground.

He pushed me on the swings for a while, making a couple of kids across the road in their front yard stop to watch because I was going so high. I ended up screaming when it nearly flipped over the other side of the sets. He laughed and caught me before I could fall off it.

"My turn." he said, pulling me off them and sitting in my place. I was surprised the swing could take it. He had to lift his knees up so his feet weren't dragging on the ground, and it looked really uncomfortable. I shook my head at him and ignored the kids across the road who were now standing, leaning against their fence to watch us.

I pushed him, with no help from him whatsoever, and got him about half as high as he'd gotten me. He finally gave in and kicked off the ground, hardly giving me a warning, so I only just got out of the way in time.

"You nearly hit me in the face with that swing!" I said loudly, feeling envious of how high he could get _himself_ on them.

"Aw, I wouldn't hurt you, Claire-bear." he jumped off the swing when he was still in the air above the bars and landed lightly on his feet so gracefully I narrowed my eyes at him with envy.

I snuck a glance at the kids across the road, who had somehow multiplied, and smirked at them as their mouths hung open.

We sat at the old bench on the side of the park, and I grabbed my bag from the ground, opening it in front of me.

"Happy birthday," I said, handing him the crappily-wrapped present and home-made card. He read the card first, smiling at the things I'd written, then tore into his present.

He pulled out the little pink bear, a fluff ball about half the size of his massive hand and smiled up at me. "As in 'Claire-bear'?"

I nodded, smiling back. "You got me the wolf, so you get the bear...and I'm sorry about all the pink fluff..."

He laughed and pulled me into a tight hug. "Thanks, Claire-bear...and I can see the resemblance..." he pulled back and held the little fluffy bear next to me. I narrowed my eyes and he laughed again.

The kids across the road were still watching, though they had gone back to messing around in the garden. They were probably sticking around and wondering if Quil was about to pull out a telegraph pole.

"Aha," Quil caught sight of them too as he lifted me on his shoulders. "Now we have to play our old game..."

We each took a space of thick grass and lifted our hands in front of our face. "Ready?" I asked him. He was about fifteen metres away.

"Uh-huh." He locked eyes on his hand, which was just in front of his face, and started spinning, as I did, as quickly as I could.

After exactly twenty five seconds, we both collapsed to the ground and looked at the trees above us, spinning like crazy.

I giggled as he grabbed my feet and pulled me along the ground. "Are you still dizzy?"

I nodded. "Yep."

He laughed and dropped my feet, lying next to me on the cold grass. It hadn't rained in a while, but the earth beneath the green blades was still a little damp.

We were still for a couple of minutes, just thinking. And, of course, I was trying to get rid of the dizziness that was still attatched to me.

"You know what we haven't done for a long time?" Quil asked after a few minutes.

I turned to look at him. "No..."

"Cloud gazing. Remember, we used to find all the shapes?"

"Ah, yeah!" I smiled and looked back at the sky.

Not surprisingly, the whole thing was gray. But there was a layer of darker clouds underneath the lighter ones that looked like was the color of the actual sky. I noticed one and pointed it out. "That looks like my hair after I've just woken up."

Quil laughed and pointed to another one. "That looks like a rabitt."

"That one," I smirked and pointed to the left. "Looks like Sally when she gets mad."

"Whoa, it does!" Quil laughed and sat up, taking a photo of the cloud with his phone. "I'm showing her that."

I giggled and waited for him to go again.

"That one...looks like us."

I looked to where he was pointing, and narrowed my eyes at the cloud for a moment before I saw it.

I could see a girl and a big mound that easlily shaped itself into a giant wolf. One of the girl's arms were extended to the wolf's back, as if she were petting him. I smiled as it was blown into a different shape. "You should've taken a photo of that one."

"Probably..." he murmured, clearing his throat and sitting up. "I made dinner reservations in Port Angeles, and we need to be there by six-thirty."

"Ah 'kay," I stood up after him and dusted my jeans off, not worrying about the state my hair was in.

We made our way back to his truck, our hands twined together, and he helped me get in my side. "You'd better be hungry." he threatened playfully, giving me a wink.

I smiled back. "Yeah, but if I don't finish it I know you will anyway."

He laughed as he got in the car and started up the engine. "Most likely. Don't wanna waste good food..."

Because the radio in his car was completely useless, I sung the songs that came into my head, and he sung along.

_"But I've been trying and waiting and completely wondering why you're not..." _we both looked at each other.

"Uhh..." I frowned.

_"Da duhdumm, bahdahdah dumm..." _Quil said quickly, holding on the last note a little too long.

We both picked up again. _"So can you give me the answers to my questions?!"_

"We should really learn the words to that song..." I muttered after we'd sung the last verse, completely in 'la-la's and 'hmmmm's.

"Eh, it's not that good, anyway..." Quil said, speeding through a red light.

I smirked. "It's Sally's favorite song at the moment. She was singing it at the lunch table this morning, and I've had it stuck in my head ever since."

"Does she know what it's about?" he asked, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

"No..." I thought the lyrics over, and my eyes widened. "Oh. Ah, I'll tell her tomorrow."

Quil laughed again, a little uncomfortable and pulled into an empty spot in the car park behind the restaraunt.

We had left the park at twilight, and it was black now. Quil opened my door for me, as he always did, and walked me into the restaraunt, holding my hand.

The woman at the door smiled up at him. "Hello, have you booked a reservation?" she asked him, batting her eyelashes a couple of times.

He smiled back, but only in a friendly way, which I appreciated. "Ateara?"

She checked a book on the desk in front of her, and instructed another girl who was standing next to her. The other girl walked us into the big room, already filled out with heaps of people. "Just take a seat right here, and there'll be a waiter along any minute."

"Thanks," Quil said, taking one of the two chairs. I took the other.

The restaraunt was painted a red color, except for the ceiling, which was mahogany. There were candles and flowers on every table, and jazzy music playing from the corners and roof of the room. The menus were the same color red as the walls, and the writing was in black and white. Very classy. Quil picked one up and studied it for about a minute before passing it to me.

It took ten minutes for a waiter to come around to us and ask what we wanted. Quil asked for some drinks -- both Coke, which, I knew, the man disapproved of -- and then ordered both of our meals. The waiter smiled once before moving away from us, in the direction of the kitchen.

"I don't think he liked the Coke idea." I said sheepishly.

Quil shrugged. "It's not like I'm going to order you wine like everyone else. You're twelve."

"Almost thirteen," I said casually, ignoring the look an old woman was giving me as I tried to straighten out my hair. The big, loose curls in it were completely uneven today, and it was making it look like I'd only curled one side. Not many people on the reservation had hair like mine.

It took another half an hour to get our meals. Quil was kicking himself for not taking a picnic to the park earlier. I could literally hear his stomach growling, even over the sound of the radio and people talking and laughing.

"Thank God," Quil said, picking up his knife and fork and stabbing them into his food, not even thanking the waitress who had brought the plates over. She didn't look like she minded much.

"Thank you," I said, smiling at her. She gave me a sweeping look, then turned back to the kitchen and walked away without any words. "She was nice." I muttered visiously, starting to eat my own food.

Quil looked up with a mouthful of food and gave me a sympathetic smiled. "At least she gave us happiness."

I smirked and wiped a bit of sauce from the corner of his mouth.

******************

**Okay, I think I had about seventeen thousand and eighty one writer's blocks throughout this chapter. I just didn't know what to write.**

**I'll post the next chapter next Monday, like usual. Please review for me! I will forever have a special place for you in my heart if you do!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	11. Chapter Ten

**Claire's thirteen in this chapter, and it's getting to the point where the years will slow down more. I didn't have that much to write while she was going through her younger years, but not different things coming into the picture and I can get them all to feel more interesting things.**

**Thanks, as well, to my reviewers since last chapter, ****allisonlang,** **Asha123, Mandy, ****ShadowInTheNight1, ****and ****Ginaaaa****, and to the people who favourited my story and put it on their alerts list! Love you guys!**

******************

**Chapter 10**

I narrowed my eyes as I noticed Sally on the sidewalk out the front of the school, her face burrowed into Kelsi's shoulder. I knew it would be over nothing. The two of them were drama queens and it took a lot of my patience to get through each day with them. Still, I was supposed to be their friend. I quickened my pace and stopped next to them, raising one of my eyebrows.

"What happened?"

"Brian dumped me." Sally sniffed, taking her phone out of her pocket and handing it to me. I looked at the screen. The message he had sent, announcing them over was still on the screen. She had obviously showed as many people who would listen.

I read the text, taking in why he'd dumped her and how hard it was trying to maintain a relationship while he lived in Canada and only came to Washington to visit his aunt on rare occasions. I didn't really see why Sally was so upset --she'd only met him twice before. And both of those occasions were on the same weekend.

"Ah...I'm sorry, Sally." I said, pushing her phone back into the pocket of her jeans. She was still nestling into Kelsi's shoulder. I sighed as the first bell rang and grabbed her bag from her feet, slinging it over my free shoulder. "C'mon, we'll be late."

By the time home room was over, Sally had stopped crying and her usually perfectly made up eyes were red and puffy with tear tracks running down her cheeks. She rubbed them furiously and grabbed her little makeup case from her school bag. I resisted the urge to snort -- I'd never had patience for much makeup, and I couldn't see any developing any where in the near future.

I had to take her to the bathroom so she could fix up her eyes, which took five minutes from my first class -- Science.

I walked in with my head down and sat at the back table with Kelsi, Dyllan and Cory. I looked up once I had set my books and pencil case on the table and shook my head to any questions they started to ask. The teacher had stopped when he saw me come in, so the whole class was staring back at me like he was.

I felt the blush creeping up on my cheeks, burning me. I hated this. I should never have gone to the bathroom for Sally. Finally, after what felt like could've been the whole perid, the teacher resumed talking and everyone slowly turned back to the front. Dyllan and Cory were snickering into their hands. I resisted the urge to kick them in the shins, instead giving them the filthiest glare I could manage. That only made them laugh harder. I rolled my eyes and put my attention to the teacher as he studied our group closely.

At recess, Sally started crying again. I groaned mentally and exchanged an annoyed look with Dyllan and Kelsi. Cory looked like he was about to grab Sally and comfort her with a hug.

"I just thought he liked me!" she wailed, getting a look off a group of grade two students. Kindergartners were laughing at her while getting their food. The teacher on duty looked like he was wondering whether to come over and ask her what was wrong or walk away so he wouldn't get called into it.

The bell rang and I jumped up from the table as quickly as I could. "Claire -- wait!" Sally said, grabbing my sleeve. "We have English together!"

I sighed and stopped myself with very strong will power from slamming my head against the walls of the cafeteria. "Ah, I forgot. Hurry up, Sally!"

She sniffed and grabbed her bag, flung it over her shoulder and followed me out of the cafeteria, grabbing my hand on the way. She trailed behind me the whole way, so we were a tiny bit late for this class, too, but there were still a couple of people to come in after us.

"What's wrong, Sally?" a boy asked from across the room, making everyone look closely at her.

She shook her head and looked down at the table, but I could tell she was enjoying the attention. That was probably why she was crying to begin with. She and Kelsi had done the same thing on numerous occasions in the past.

This went on all day. By the end of it, Cory had finally hugged her until she stopped crying and asked to walk her home. She hadn't accepted the invitation to walk her home, but she seemed to be starting to catch the fact that he liked her. Took her long enough.

I was _so_ relieved to get out of last period. I almost ran to the gate, ignoring Kelsi called me back to walk with her and Sally. I hoped they wouldn't catch up to me on my way home. I wouldn't be able to stand any more talk about a guy that I'd never met before, and how perfect and gorgeous he was, and how unlucky Sally was to have lost him after less than a week.

I was walking as quickly as I could without it looking suspicious, not looking anywhere but the ground, when I felt an urge to look up. It was a weird feeling, but somewhat familiar. Like it was always there, but I hadn't been expecting it to be this pronounced.

Quil pulled into the spot I was looking. He leaned across the passenger's seat to open the door. "Hey, Claire-bear." I was so happy to see the familiar truck and its driver. I was starting to feel different about Quil, but I imagined it was just because I was going through all the different emotions my health teach kept constantly reminding my class of, and she said it was natural to find an attraction to the opposite sex. But Quil? He was older than me...and my best friend. _Just the hormones. _I told myself.

I smiled, glad my day was starting to get better. "Hey, Quil! I thought I was supposed to be walking home today?"

"They let me off work early. I'll take you home." he said, shrugging.

"Thanks." I said as I threw my bag in the front of the truck and jumped in, just missing it.

Sally and Kelsi waved once as we drove past them. Sally looked like she was crying again. I smiled back at them, not hoping as much as I probably should have that the smile looked genuine.

"So how is the wonderful Kelly today?" Quil asked me, giving the two of them a small smile.

I couldn't help but grin as I leaned back in the seat. I found it so much easier to talk to Quil than anyone else I hung around. I didn't hold back to tell him anything. "Sally's been acting depressed all day, because her boyfriend of six days dumped her over text message last night. She doesn't know how she's supposed to live with herself. And Kelsi said that she doesn't reallly see what the big deal was with him, but she said if he looked like Mr. Reg, she'd be heart broken, too."

"Oh, the dramas of thirteen-year-old girls..."

*******

**QPOV**

She walked along the sidewalk, her hands in her pockets as her jeans scuffed the concrete over her Converse. She was watching her feet as she went, and all I could see of her face was the start of her forehead before it was covered by her beautiful dark hair.

I smiled and pulled over as she looked up, opening the passenger's door for her to get in. "Hey, Claire-bear."

Claire smiled. "Hey, Quil! I thought I was supposed to be walking home today?"

I shrugged. "They let me off work early. I'll take you home."

She threw her bag in the truck and jumped in after it. "Thanks."

Two girls, one with the same dark hair and skin as Claire and one with unnatural blond hair, but the same Quileute complexion, watched her as we drove past. They rose their hands and waved once at the same time. Claire smiled back at them.

"So how is the wonderful Kelly today?" I asked her, giving the two girls a small smile as I referred to them with their nickname.

She grinned and leaned back in her seat. "Sally's been acting depressed all day, because her boyfriend of six days dumped her over text message last night. She doesn't know how she's supposed to live with herself. And Kelsi said that she doesn't reallly see what the big deal was with him, but she said if he looked like Mr. Reg, she'd be heart broken, too."

I shook my head and sighed. "Oh, the dramas of thirteen-year-old girls..."

She rolled her eyes. "How many girls did you date when you were thirteen?"

I laughed once, trying not to make it sound uncomfortable. "Two."

"A month?" she asked, her eyebrows rising.

I hesitated. "Yeah...that's about right." I didn't like lying to Claire, but she didn't need to bring stuff like this up, even if it was for fun. It's not like I actually had a real girlfriend. And I hadn't _done_ anything with any of them.

She giggled and pulled her feet up onto her seat. "And I'm still waiting for my first boyfriend."

I cleared my throat and turned onto her road. She wouldn't be going on many dates if I could help it. "Just...don't rush into anything, okay?"

"I'm not stupid, Quil." she said, grabbing her bag and kicking the door open.

"I know that." I opened my own and slammed it shut, walking to her side quickly. "I just don't want anyone to take advantage of you."

She grinned and started walking to the porch with me. "Somehow I don't think that'd happen in a town this small."

I followed after her, unlocking the door with my own key before she could get her's out and standing aside to let her through. She smiled, almost uncomfortably, as if she was thinking something she wouldn't want me to know, and walked straight into her room, collapsing on the matress I'd put under her hammock. "Argh, I've had the crappest day ever." she said, grabbing her stuffed Quil doll and holding it to her chest.

"What's wrong, Claire-bear?" I asked, laying down next to her.

She sighed. "Just...Sally _really_ irritated me today. More than usual. More than she should've. And I've felt kinda sick all day. And I'm confused. I don't know..."

I hesitated, deciding to get away from this particular subject. Girl problems were something I'd never really paid attention to in school. "I'm sorry, Claire-bear. Are you happier now?"

She nodded and rolled into my side wrapping one of her arms around me as far as it would go. I put mine around her, too. "Thanks, Quil." she said quietly.

I kissed her forehead. "Anything for my best friend."

She sighed and closed her eyes, falling into a light sleep. I sat with her, holding her to keep her warm, and waited until she woke up.

***

**CPOV**

I woke up in Quil's arms. It was strangely comforting, but I knew it was just because I hadn't had much luck with my other friends at the moment. He mussed my hair once he was sure I was awake, and I laughed, moving away from him.

"What time is it?" I asked, feeling like utter crap. Afternoon naps weren't my thing.

"Six. I was just about to make dinner..."

I pulled myself up. "I'll make it."

"I was hoping you'd say that." he said, giving me his Quil-grin. I knew he wasn't really going to make dinner. In all the years I'd known Quil, the only time I'd seen him doing anything in the kitchen was when he was helping me bake cakes or something.

I narrowed my eyes and walked out to the kitchen, wondering what I could possibly do to make the disgusting feeling I always got after having the stupid naps. Maybe brushing my teeth would help. Or a big drink of water. Or sugar. Or screaming at someone...

I cut up all the ingredients and put them in my mother's largest pot, stirring them all together. Emily had taught me how to make one of her special casseroles a while ago, and we had all the ingredients, so I was going to try and remember everything and have it turn out right. I knew it would taste all that bad. I'd gotten Emily's cooking skills from my father's side of the family.

Quil watched me from the kitchen chair and groaned as there was a knock at the door.

"What the hell're you doing here?" he asked Embry as he stepped past him and took a spot at the table.

"I finally got all the money I needed to get those tickets. If I keep working at different places, I worked out I can get halfway 'round the world." Embry said happily, sniffing the air. "What's cookin', good lookin'?"

"Casserole." I answered, turning away from the pot to look at him. "Em, do you seriously think you're going to find her?"

"Why not?" he said happily, looking extremely excited for something that could backfire so easily.

"So...you're not phasing at _all?_" Quil asked in disbelief.

Embry frowned. "No, I will...but not much. Just because I wanna keep my age young, just incase she's as young as --" he stopped himself and swallowed. "Just incase she's, like, two when I find her."

I turned back to the pot, continuing to stir it. "But, Embry, what if you find her and she's really old...like ninety or something?"

There was no response. I didn't turn around to ask him again. I knew he'd probably gone through every possibility out there, so I didn't want to help him into the depths of hell any more than he already was. I just wanted to know how he worked out all that stuff about his money. Last I'd heard, Embry wasn't the best mathematician on the reservation.

I served dinner up for the three of us and we sat at the table, talking about the pack and my school work, but no one said anything about Embry leaving. I knew Quil was upset by the whole deal. Even though Embry had been hurt, and Quil wanted him to finally be over it, his best friend leaving wasn't his favorite idea.

I didn't like it, either. Yeah, it'd be cool to get my room back at last, but I'd rather it be occupied by Embry while I slept in Quil's bed than empty on nights I wasn't there.

"Is there any more, Claire?" Embry asked, looking up to the pot on the stove.

I shook my head. "You two ate it all. Again."

They grinned. "We're growing boys." Quil joked.

"You'd better hope not," I murmured, picking up the two bowls and rinsing them in the sink. If they grew anymore they wouldn't be able to fit through the door.

They moved to the living room and I joined them, sitting at Quil's feet, watching one of the many game shows on.

"C!" Embry all but screamed at the television. "No, not B! C!"

_'And answer B is correct, for ten thousand dollars!' _the host for the game show comgratulated the consestant with a shake of the hand while Quil used his own to whack Embry on the back of the head. I looked back, grinning at the two of them.

I heard a car pull into my driveway, and, after a minute, my parents walked through the front door, into the living room.

"Hey, boys!" my mom said, dropping her purse in an armchair and smiling at the three of us. "Have you eaten?"

"Yep," Embry smiled back. "It was delicious. Your daughter definitely got cooking talent from her aunt."

"If only it'd been passed through my side of the family..." my mother muttered, moving out of the way for her husband to get through. He looked at Quil and Embry, didn't bother about saying hello, and changed the channel.

"Dad!" I started, sitting up.

He gave me a look. "I've had a hard day at work, piss off."

I sighed and walked into my bedroom, not turning around to see if Quil and Embry were following me. My father could really piss me off sometimes. Most of the time. Even though he was hardly ever around, I still hated him about ninety six percent of the time he was.

I jumped in my hammock and spread out, taking as much of the room up as I could with my Quil doll in my arms. The real one and his best friend sat on the matress underneath my hammock, talking quietly.

"He's an asshole," I said, leaning over the side so I could look at them.

They stopped and looked at me, their eyebrows raised.

"My dad." I continued, filling them in while trying to keep my voice low enough that it wouldn't travel out of my room. "I hate it how he just...ugh."

Quil smiled. "Yeah, it does get old."

Embry grinned. "I can't really say anything bad about him...he's never actually spoken to me."

"You see my point." I said, waving a hand. "You're here enough to be treated like a cousin, but he ignores you.

"S'okay, Claire-bear." Quil told me. "Soon enough you'll be out of this place and living on your own, anyway."

"Or with your husband." Embry corrected.

I stuck my tongue out. "I think I wanna have a long-term boyfriend before we get married...like, ten years or something."

"Ten years?!" Quil asked, his eyebrows raising.

I raised one of my own at his outburst and nodded. "Maybe...depends on how much I like him."

Embry laughed slowly, looking at the two of us before falling back onto my matress. "Hmmm..."

Quil turned his attention to him, after looking at me for a moment. "Well, you can always move in with me if you don't want to live alone, Claire-bear...I'm gonna have a spare room, anyway, by the looks of things."

I looked down at Embry, too, who sighed. "If you two don't like the idea so much, why do you keep bringing it up?"

"Are you really sure you wanna get out of here?" Quil asked for the hundredth and sixteenth time.

Embry gave him a look. "Yes."

"What if she's here? What if you just haven't seen her yet?" I challenged. "For all you know, she's living two doors down from me. She could even be one of the pack's sisters!"

Embry shook his head. "I don't feel anything around them, so it can't be one of them..."

"But I didn't fee--" Quil started. His eyes widened and he swore under his breath. "I don't think we'd be able to feel it like that...like a radar."

Embry shrugged, not looking anywhere near me. I always felt kind of left out while the wolves were having special 'pack talk'. I didn't know enough about anything to join in with them. "I just have a feeling she's out there somewhere, and I don't see La Push compensating for me."

Quil sighed and nodded. "Okay. Whatever you want to do, I'll be behind you for it. Just...you have to come back and visit before I get too old."

He laughed. "Okay, man."

"And visit me, too." I said. "Because I'll be the only one aging, and Quil'll be, like, second in command after Seth starts aging for Sandra."

"You know I'll visit you, Claire." Embry said, pulling a lock of my hair. "Like I'd miss out on your food for the rest of my life."

I smirked and playfully slapped his arm. "Should've known you're only sticking around for the food. Now that Emily's got more than Sam to feed you're coming to the helpless one."

He laughed and stood up. "Ah, I'm beat. Am I gonna have to phase, or can you take me home?" he asked Quil, kicking him lightly in the back.

Quil started to get up, too. "M'coming."

"Night," I said, kissing Quil's cheek as he kissed the corner of my left eye. I hugged Embry and two of them walked out of my bedroom, with one last glance at me from Quil.

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**Ooh, Claire's getting older! Please review! It really does mean a lot to me. Thanks for reading.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**FIFTY-TWO DAYS LEFT UNTIL NEW MOON! AAHHHH!! Now that the last 281 days've gone, the rest are going amazingly quickly. Yay!**

**And a quick thank you to the people who addded my story onto their alerts list, and to; ****93samayxo, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, allisonlang and The all mighty and powerfulM for reviewing! You guys brighten my world!**

******************

**Chapter 11**

**QPOV**

I drove Embry to the air port at six in the morning, my eyes still half-closed. This was not the appropriate time for me to be awake. At least I wasn't as crabby as Claire was when woken up before the sun was up. In my defence, this hadn't been an accident.

Embry'd offered to get a cab, instead of having to wake me up, but I'd told him no. I wanted to see him leave. I didn't want him to just leave. That was almost as bad as the fact that he wouldn't be around for God only knows how long.

When we got to Seattle airport, the sun was properly risen and I was awake, because of my coffee from McCafe. It would have had to be the first time I'd ever finished a cup of coffee. The stuff tasted like crap, but it had woken me up. The two of us walked through the airport doors, his bags over each of our arms.

Embry's parents and sister thought he'd just had a sudden obsession with getting out to see the world. I didn't know how long it'd be since he came back again, so I wasn't about to visit them anytime soon and get bombarded with questions.

Embry bought his ticket -- he was headed to England first -- and the two of us waited until the plane was boarding in a small section of the airport, dissing his bags by a chair.

"I still can't believe this." I muttered sourly, frowning slightly at him.

He grinned. "I know...I didn't think I'd really be getting out of here."

"You know everyone's going to hold a grudge against you forever for this?" I asked him, folding my arms.

"Not forever," he smiled widely. "I won't be living forever once I find my Imprint."

I sighed and nodded. "You've said that a couple of times..."

"I'll come back and visit in a few years." he promised.

"You'd better. Or I'm gonna track you down."

"And I'll talk to you when I'm phased, too." he continued after a break. "See? You can't completely escape me."

"Years...that's a long time, though." I tried to reason. "Even for us."

"Long enough for you to tell Claire. Two years and she'll be sixteen...that old enough for you?" he smirked. "You have to tell her before I get back, okay? I'm not going to be very happy if I come back to you two just being 'friends'."

"What if that's all she wants to be when I tell her, anyway?" I asked, making him laugh.

"Yeah, right, Quil. She's one of those dreamers. She wants the perfect guy...who's not better than her own Imprint?!"

I smiled. "Thanks, Em."

The speaker announced that Embry's plane was boarding, and Embry grimmaced. "Time to leave good ol' La Push. Whoa..."

I smiled sadly, and gave him a brotherly hug. "You'd better be phased quite a bit. I'm going to have to get used to the fact of having one of my two closest siblings away from me."

"At least you'll have half of Jacob." he said, releasing me and smiling. "But you have to remember to let the other half go to Nessie." he laughed, and I pushed his shoulder. "See you, Quil."

I waved and watched him walk through the door, then I turned sadly away and started out of the airport.

I'd felt as if something had been taken away from me. Embry and I had been best friends since we were eight -- that's 20 years, if I had gotten any better at maths since my years at school. Like Jacob and Embry, I hadn't cared too much about not listening.

It was going to be weird, not having him around any more. Especially since he'd been living in my house, too.

I got in my truck and started it up slowly, rolling down the windows. People watching would probably think I was mad. Everyone I had passed was rugged up and wearing all the woolen essentials.

I drove to Claire's house. I needed to talk to someone, and it was a Saturday.

I pulled up out the front, hours later, and walked in, getting drenched by the heavy rain. She answered the door before I could knock.

"Did Embry--?"

I nodded. She sighed heavily and pulled me inside, looking like she was about to cry.

**CPOV**

For Embry to leave without even saying goodbye...ugh. I was so pissed at him.

Of course, he'd been saying he was about to pack up and leave for years, but I didn't know if he was really going to. It just seemed that his dreams were bigger than reality. He was always telling us he was going to do things and never got around to them.

"So...you're lonely now. Living by yourself again." I said sadly, hugging my stuffed Quil to me and wishing he was as warm as the real one.

The human Quil nodded slowly. "Yeah...I should probably put an ad in the paper or something and ask for someone else to move in...I think I might go crazy living with myself again after this long."

"I'll stay there tonight if you want." I suggested.

He smiled. "That might be nice."

***

_"Claire!" _Kelsi's loud voice blared from my cell as I held it away from my ear. Quil was silently laughing from his couch. I raised my eyebrow until Kelsi continued. _"You should soooo be here right now...everyone's asking where you've gotten toooo..."_

It was quite obvious my friend was wasted. Not only because her words only slurred like this when she was drunk or had a concussion, but her voice changed when she's been drinking alcohol. It was quite a funny thing to listen to, but I didn't know myself how it felt. I'd never drunk before -- Quil had kept a close eye on me over the last couple of years.

"Yeah, I didn't want to come." I told Kelsi again. "But say hello to people for me, Kelce."

_"Hey," _Kelsi drawled to someone at the party. _"Claire says hello."_

_"Who the hell's Claire?" _the voice asked her.

_"Hey, Claire, Mitchell wants ta talk to ya!" _Kelsi murmured, a little too close to the phone.

_"Who's this?"_ another voice came from the phone.

I smirked. "This is Claire. How're you, Mitchell?"

_"I don't know any Claire's...and my name's Ben, not Mitchell." _the voice told me.

I giggled. "Oh, okay. Well, can you please put my friend back on now?"

_"Mm-hm."_

_"Sup, Margaret?!"_ Kelsi screamed into the phone. That had Quil laughing out loud.

"It's Claire, Kelsi." I told her, trying not to laugh myself.

_"Oh..."_ she laughed a couple of times. _"This is Susan. How're you, Margaret?"_

"Okay, Kelce, I'm going now." I told her, sick of her calling me for no reason. "Have fun."

_"But I didn't sleep with you yet!" _she protested, her words almost impossible to understand.

"Bye, Kelsi." I said, pressing the 'end' button on my phone and throwing it to the floor.

"Oh my God." Quil was still laughing. "I'm so glad you've never been to one of those parties before."

I nodded. "Yeah, and it's given my friends questions to ask why I wasn't there."

"You don't want to go to one, do you?" he asked me seriously.

I shook my head. "Not at all...I just don't like every person in my year and the two about me asking why I wasn't at the last party...I think I can live, though."

"They're not safe." Quil told me. "Too many drunks and naked people..."

I giggled. "Sounds dangerous."

It was Saturday night, and Quil was having me over to sleep after his best friend leaving him in the morning. He was still a little upset by it, particularly because Embry hadn't called him yet, and he had said he would as soon as he landed.

"So...what're we gonna do?" I asked, pulling my legs up and resting my chin on my knees.

Quil shrugged. "Movie night?"

That did sound better than going to any of the stupid parties Kelsi and Sally went to almost every weekend. They never stopped complaining about them afterwards, so I didn't know why they still bothered with them. I nodded eagerly and opened his DVD cabinet, looking through the hundreds of discs he and Embry had managed to collect over the years.

"Hmmmm..." I looked through them all, glancing over the ones I'd already seen.

I was in the mood for romance or comedy...definitely not horror. _Maybe_ a good tradgedy, though I'd seen Romeo and Juliet hundreds of times...

"This one? I've never seen it before." I held up the case to show Quil.

He hesitated. "It's...really depressing. You'll cry."

"Will _you_ cry?" I asked him, smiling impishly.

"Probably." he admitted.

"Please?" I asked, pouting a little.

He sighed and narrowed his eyes the tiniest bit. "Fine. Put it in."

I opened his DVD played and put the disc in, pushing it closed again. I jumped up to sit on the couch with him.

"I can't believe you're never seen _Titanic."_ he said, smirking a little. _"Everyone's_ seen this movie."

"Sorry." I said, sticking my tongue out of the side of my mouth as the movie started.

We watched the movie, not talking at all. I laughed in the bits at the start -- when the two guys were hanging off the side of the boat and waving goodbye to the people they didn't know. I jumped at the bit where she slipped off the side of the boat, and then I cried.

Quil sat up from leaning deeply into the couch so he could get a better look at my face. "Are you crying?"

I nodded. "You said I was going to."

"But I meant when the boat sinks...not now." he said, grinning at me.

I sniffed. He hadn't spoiled anything about the story. I'd been told about it a hundred times before. "But it's so romantic!"

We were up to the part where the two of them were on the front of the boat. She was standing in front of him, flying off the front. I loved the way she leaned into him and he twined their fingers together, whispering a song into her ear.

I sighed and sniffed at the same time. A very difficult thing to so that resulted in one of those annoying, stuffy head pains. "I love this movie..."

Quil ran his fingers through my hair. "Yeah, it _does_ seem like your kind of movie."

I took his hand as the scene ended and we both shut up to watch the next bit.

It _was_ kind of awkward when they were in the car. I felt Quil stiffen uncomfortably, but I tried to act like nothing was out of the ordinary. We'd watched movies together with people having sex in them before.

What really got me was the few last scenes. Especially when she couldn't find the key and was running through the ship in knee-deep water, her floor length dress pulling her back.

"Take off the fricking coat and dress!" I screamed at the television, crying yet again. I couldn't stand Jack dying. "They're just holding you back!" I threw a book at the screen. Quil laughed and caught my other hand, pulling it back and holding it in front of me.

My stomach was clenched the whole time they were trying to get off the sinking ship. I hoped they both made it out okay -- especially Jack, no matter what people had told me...

I was crying so loudly by the time she was finished telling her story that I was surprised Quil could still hear the television. He pulled me against him so I was lying in his lap and kept brushing his fingers through my fringe so it was out of my wet eyes, rubbing my back at the same time.

I was almost positive that he couldn't hear the television when it showed her pictures on the table beside her bed. And then when he was waiting for her at the clock! I'd never seen anything so romantic in all my life that wasn't from the cause of Imprinting. I sniffed into Quil's lap and dried my eyes on my hand, sitting up as the credits came up and Celine Dion's voice filled Quil's living room.

"That was such a sweet movie." I sobbed, wishing my eyes would stop leaking.

Quil wiped a couple of tears away with his warm hand, smiling. I noticed he was tearing up, too, and laughed. "Aww, Quil!"

He smirked. "Shut up." he said, blinking them away.

I giggled and leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.

For a while now I'd taken an interest to guys -- something Sally and Kelsi had found amazing when I'd told them about it. It's not like I hadn't noticed how damn smokin' Quil was...it was just that I knew he'd never like me back like that.

I thought back to the movie, how Leonardo -- sorry, _Jack -- _had first laid his eyes on Rose, and everything else around him had tuned out. It reminded me of Jared and Kim, and Emily and Sam...and Nessie and Jake. I sighed heavily, feeling as if all of my dreams had fallen to the ground.

"What's wrong, Claire-bear?" Quil asked, pulling a few strands of hair that were stuck underneath my eye away from my face.

**QPOV**

She looked at me sadly, her eyes still wet. It made me hurt to see her sad. And I could tell she wasn't just sad because of the movie we'd watched. Something was bothering her...or had already bothered her. She looked as if she'd just realized the saddest thing she could think of was true.

"It's just that..." she sighed again and wiped at her eyes. "I see all the Imprints, and they're so...in love. And then I watch movies like this," she waved her hand at the now-blank screen, "And it's there, too! And I was just thinking...is it real without the Imprint? I mean, I see Bella and Edward looking at each other, as well as their brothers and sisters, and they've got it, too. But they've been around for ages, and it's taken them a while to find it... And then I _know_ my mother and father don't feel anything like that. They couldn't care less if the other was having an emotional breakdown..." she breathed in deeply. "I just...I really want to find someone who cares about me that strongly...and I know that I'm never going to."

My heart broke when she burst into tears again. She really cared about this subject. I took her in my arms and kissed her hair, holding her to me. "Claire..."

She sniffed, and I could tell she was listening. I stopped myself at the last moment. I was going to keep her from knowing, so she could pick who she wanted in the future. "I know you'll find someone you really love."

"But what if they don't love me back?" she whispered against my arm, her tears dripping onto my skin.

I squeezed her as tightly as I could without making her uncomfortable. "How could they not?!"

She laughed once. "Thanks, Quil."

She sat up in my arms and I kissed the corner of her eye, the moisture from her tears coming off onto my lips a tiny bit. The two of us made eye-contact for a while, then she cleared her throat and started moving away.

She pulled herself from my arms and got up unsteadily. "Uh...I have to brush my teeth. I'm tired"

I nodded. "Okay. I'm pretty tired, too..."

She smiled half-heartedly, then ran off to the bathroom.

**CPOV**

I brushed my teeth quickly, eager to curl up in bed and get to sleep. That movie had been really long, but it'd been worth it. I was just kicking myself for crying like that in front of Quil. It wasn't like it was over anything important, too. I was such an idiot.

I glared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, wondering why I had allowed myself to act like such a loser in front of him.

One of my eyebrows raised in the mirror, giving myself a questioning look. _Why do I care so much? I've cried in front of Quil before!_

Maybe it was because I had only just started noticing guys, and Quil was one of the best-looking ones I'd come across. And he had the nicest personality out of all of them. Surely it wasn't because I actually had feelings like _that_ for him...

The bathroom door opened and Quil walked through, giving me a smile in the mirror. I'd jumped back from the sink as he'd walked in, and I grabbed one of my makeup removing wipes and wiped my eyes with it, removing any trace of mascara. I wiped down my cheeks, as well. It had said wateproof on the packet, but I guess not. Sally and Kelsi had finally gotten to me, and I'd given in to their pleads for me to wear a tiny bit of makeup. I was only wearing mascara though, so hardly anyone noticed, anyway.

Quil brushed his teeth, watching my reflection in the mirror. I smiled sweetly as I zipped up my toiletry bag and skipped to the door, closing it behind me and making my way to Embry's old room. At long last it was mine again.

I changed as quickly as I could into my pajamas, threw my stuffed dog on my bed, and walked back into the hall, straight into Quil.

"Oops," I laughed, taking a step back. "Umm...I'm going to bed now..."

He smiled down at me. "Goodnight." he kissed the corner of my eye quickly, then straightened up and started walking toward his room.

"'Night," I said after him, walking back into my own.

**************

**I know some people were really upset about Embry leaving, but it's important that he does for the next parts of the story. Plus, I've already written the next twenty-six chapters, and I don't want to re-write them all again, so I can't change it. It'll turn out good, though! Promise!**

_**Please**_** review! It means A LOT to me. And it makes me smile. And I may consider posting the next chapter a little earlier if I get more than seven...MUAH HA HA HAAA!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**I keep my promises, so I'm back with another chapter already! I was so amazingly happy when I got home from school yesterday and my story had been added to more people's alerts and favourites lists, not to mention; ****The all mighty and powerfulM, Loisen, 90sgurl, Clina1j, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, allisonlang and lewislahver127 for reviewing! I love you all so much!**

**Anyway, I was going to post this chapter yesterday, but I had to go to a singing rehersal, then study for a couple of tests and do an assessment, so I got side-tracked. Sorry.**

**************

**Chapter 12**

I ran to my math class as quickly as I could with my head down, trying to keep as much rain off me as I could. I'd done my best to straighten my fringe this morning so it wasn't curving in its disgusting natural way, but, judging by this weather, it'd go back to normal by the time I was inside the classroom.

I was late -- again. My phone had been playing up lately, and the time must've stopped on it for a while last night, because my alarm went off half an hour late and I had to reset my time. Stupid shit box...

I got to class and walked in without hesitating, dropping into my seat next to Kelsi. She gave me a look, which I ignored. "Where were you?" she whispered after a few seconds.

"My alarm..." I muttered, getting my books out of my bag and setting them on the table in front of me. I pulled off my top jacket (it was so cold I'd decided to wear two), which was soaked and threw it on the floor at my bag.

Kelsi looked over her shoulder, then turned back to the front, grinning.

"What?" I asked her, looking in the direction she had been. "Oh..."

We had a new guy, which had only happened at the school once while I had been there before this. Both of them stuck out like sore thumbs in one of our classrooms. This one in particular, had light skin which had been slightly tanned, light brown hair that was almost a sandy blone color, and icy blue eyes. Three words to sum him up in my opinion: quite good looking. He caught my eye and smiled. I turned back to the front as quickly as I could.

"How _hot_ is he?!" Kelsi whispered loudly. I wouldn't be surprised if he could hear her.

"Eh, he's alright, I guess." I said in a voice loud enough to be sure he heard that. Our teacher gave me a dissaproving look. "Nothing too special, though." I wondered if it was true -- what my friends in my second year had told me about what happened to liars.

"You're a freak, Claire. How you've never had a boyfriend, I won't know..." Kelsie muttered, pouting as she looked over me.

I turned and narrowed my eyes. "Don't." Kelsi could easily see she was prettier than me. She was so thin that even with a long sleeve shirt, a cardigan and a jumper on, she still looked like a twig. Not to mention I was still more flat-chested than her...

"Jeeze, take a compliment!" she said, holding up her hands in defense.

Kelsi kept turning around that _entire_ lesson, just to look at the guy a couple of rows back. I got so sick of it I started looking in the other direction. It was funny, though, when our teacher asked her for an answer and she flung around to face the front and started stuttering.

I had a class with Sally and Dyllan after that. I couldn't even pull out my english book before they started asking me if there really was someone else in the school.

"Yeah, there is...why's it such a big deal?" I asked. I knew why it was -- there were hardly any other people (or should I say _guys._ Sally and Kelsi were involved here...) to introduce ourselves to...especially such good-looking ones, not that Dyllan cared much about that...

I did wonder how Sally sat in her chair that whole lesson. Some other girl in my math class that was also in my english class told her he was the hottest thing to ever walk through the school gates, (and almost got herself a smack in the face when she told her he was better than some guy from something they both watched...) and that she had a hard time not talking to him all through math. Sally waited, watching the clock every ten seconds, trying not to get out of her chair. She did bounce a little in impatience, though.

When we finally got to the cafeteria Sally ran to Kelsi and they burst into a big conversation about the new guy. I got my food without greeting Kelsi and sat at our usual table, trying to block out their babble.

I hummed to myself, picking the frigging onion I hadn't asked for off my sandwich and hoping I didn't take any lettuce with it as they sat in the seats across from me, still babbling so quickly they almost sounded like Alice. At least I'd had practise with the vamp so I could understand what they were saying.

I sighed and took a bite of my now onion-free sandwich, letting what they were saying seep into my head. They were still talking about the new guy...'Lucas' his name was apparently. Sally was asking Kelsi where he was and why he hadn't gotten to the cafeteria yet, as if Kelce was supposed to know. I didn't even try to join in the conversation.

It wasn't as if I didn't check out guys and imagine myself in senarios I saw on TV and read in books with them, because I did -- a lot. Wasn't the whole point of being a teenage girl to daydream and get asked what the hell was wrong with you? It was just that I didn't see the need to become attatched like a parasite to every single guy in the school like Kelsi and Sally. I didn't really think dating in a school, especially one this small, was such a good idea, unless you knew you were going to be together for longer than most teenage couples. And I really didn't want to be in a relationship that would probably only last a couple of months at the most.

I was still deep in thought and starting to wonder where Cory, Zach and Dyllan had gotten to, when Kelsi and Sally shut up for one precious second, then started whispering so fast I only caught a couple of their words. 'Coming' and 'hot' came up frequently in the minute or so they were talking, then they both stopped talking again and smiled over my shoulder.

I frowned, not looking forward to what I assumed was happening at all, and continued eating as if I didn't find anything about Kelsi and Sally's behaviour out of the ordinary. Maybe that would make Lucas think they were both freaks enough to stay away.

Apparently it wasn't enough. I sighed when a voice I hadn't heard before talked from right behind me.

"Hey,"

I turned in my chair with my legs up on the seat and met the new guy's blue eyes with my own dark brown for the second time that day. "Hey," I said, raising an eyebrow as if asking him what he wanted.

He took the seat next to me and I spun, still in the same position with my knees almost in my face, to look at him. "I'm Lucas Seddant." he introduced to the table, nodding at Sally and Kelsi across from us, who were leaning against each other with their mouths hanging open dreamily. I imagined drool dripping from their lips. Maybe if I'd looked close enough I would have been able to see some...

"I'm Claire, and this is Sally and Kelsi." I kicked both of them awake under the table as I said their names. They blinked and gave Lucas the same smiles.

"Hey..." Kelsi said, giving him a wink. I tried not to laugh. I don't know how she had gotten so many guys in the past -- probably because she was so comfortable throwing herself at them.

Lucas smirked. I didn't like his smirk. It wasn't the kind of smirk Quil gave when he was teasing or thought something was funny but was trying not to laugh; it was like he knew he was gorgeous and he thought everyone wanted him. I lifted my top lip in disgust for a second befrore realizing I was doing it.

The poser turned back to me. "So, Claire. Do you have a boyfriend?" Ah, he'd obviously heard what I'd been meaning for him to in math. One thing I'd learned from hanging out with guys in the past was that if you said something about them, they usually tried to make you prove yourself wrong, or change your mind. Lucas must have wanted me to melt at his feet and call him gorgeous.

I hesitated with my answer and considered telling him Quil was my boyfriend. I'd done that a couple of times before, and it wasn't hard to play up with the two of us being so close anyway. Then I considered telling him I was dating either Kelsi or Sally. I decided on telling the truth -- the two backstabbers across from me'd tell him if I lied, anyway.

"Nope. I'm all alone." I said, picking up a muffin and nibbling the edges.

He grinned. "Wanna go on a date?"

I almost had to ask him to repeat that. How forward could on guy be? Sure, Cory had asked millions of girls as up front as this before, but I was used to him. And he hardly ever got any. I gathered myself and narrowed my eyes at him. "You're asking me out?" he nodded. "After we've known each other for, like, a minute?! What the hell is _wrong_ with you?"

I saw his confidence falter, but he picked it back up quickly. "It's just that...I think you're hot, and I don't want someone else claiming you before I get the chance."

I snorted, blowing crumbs from my muffin everywhere. Gosh, I was so good at playing cool. Kelsi groaned and Sally dropped her head on the table. Gosh, _they _hadn't done it!

"Sorry, Lucas...it's just that...I don't like blue eyes. Don't take it personal."

He took the apple from my plate, being the self-confident asshole he was, and took a bite out of it. WTF?! "Well, seeing as I'm the only person at this school with blue eyes, I think I will take it personally."

"You're not." I told him. I looked over at the cheer captian of our school, Gigi Bronson. "There're a few people here with blue eyes."

Lucas followed my eyes and took the girl in. She was tall, almost five eleven, and had dead-straight, black hair to the middle of her back, violently layered and obviously straightened, though it was already almost dead straight to start with. She put so much hair spray on it so the rain couldn't get to it it looked like a rock. Her blue eyes were light, and contrasted hugely with her dank tanned skin. She noticed we were looking at her and smiled to herself, continuing to talk to her friends. Every guy in the whole school was in love with her. And half the guys that attended Forks high. She was always at their parties. Lucas whistled once, making me pretend to gag. "What's with all the good lookers around here?"

"They got spoiled when you showed up..." I muttered sourly, hoping he didn't hear it after I'd said it.

If he had, he acted like he hadn't. He turned back to me. "Okay, then. You miss out."

I snorted and took my apple out of his hand, taking a bite of my own out of it. "I'll try to remember to cry about it when I get home. I would put a reminder on my phone, but it's playing up."

He put on his annoying smirk once more before walking back to a table with a big group of guys...I noticed the three from our group over there and gave them dirty looks, which they didn't even bother to look up to see.

"Oh my _God_, Claire!" Kelsi said at the same time Sally shook her head at me.

"What?" I asked, all of a sudden feeling like I'd just said the most offensive thing I could think up to both of them.

"You just rejected the hottest guy in the school!" Sally accused.

"He's an ass." I said.

They snorted, as if that didn't matter. "Well, he's no Mr. Reg." Kelsi said, smiling and waving at the gym teacher she'd been crushing on since she came to the school. Mr. Reg smiled back, looking kind of scared, and waved. I screwed up my face in disgust.

"But seriously," Sally said, bring Kelsi back to reality. "How could you say no to _that?!_"

"You just watched me. Figure it out." I said bitterly, throwing my apple core back on my tray. "He's just trying to go out with me because he heard me say he wasn't as good as everyone thought in math."

"PMS much..." Kelsi muttered. I ignored her.

Lucas decided to sit right behind me in science. I hoped there were no other classes of mine that he was in. He kicked my chair and I turned around, only to get a glimpse of him smirking before I turned back around to my work.

He must have kicked it about ten more times before I turned around again. "Will you stop it?!" I hissed.

He smirked again. "Stop what?"

"Kicking my chair!"

"Only if you go out with me."

I shook my head, giving him an expression that asked if he'd been dropped on the head while a child.

"Young!" our science teacher barked. I closed my eyes, wondering why it was me, and turned to face the front. "You will _not_ turn around to talk to new students in _my_ class!" he told me. My cheeks went flame red and I looked down at my table, not even bothering to try and tell him. Dyllan, a few rows ahead of me, raised his eyebrows in shock and smirked at me. I slid deeper into my chair, looking away from him.

It felt like it took longer than usual for the last bell to ring. When it finally had, I grabbed my books and dumped them into my bag, not bothering to say goobye to Cory next to me as I swung my bag over my shoulder and ran for the door.

I was almost at the gate -- congratulating myself for not running into any of my best friends, meaning I'd have to stop for them (yeah, my friends were lucky to have me) -- when a figure caught up and landed in front of me. I gave a small groan of annoyance and looked at him inquiringly.

"What do you want, Lucas?"

"Call me Luke," he said, giving me that annoying smirk.

I raised my top lip in disgust, a reflex reaction, a little and pushed past him, continuing to head for the front gate. He started side-stepping next to me, starting conversation.

"So you really don't have a boyfriend?"

I sighed heavily and looked the other way, hoping I'd see Quil's familiar truck here for a surprise pick up. Not so lucky, by the looks of it. "I think I would've told you the first time if I did."

"And you don't want one?"

"I want one I've known for a little more than ten minutes." I said, stressed as I started walking in the direction of my house. "Where're you headed? I'm going home."

"I'm walking...other way, but this's worth it." he said, shrugging slightly, still with the annoying smirk.

I ignored him, hoping he'd go away before we got so close to my house he had suspicions as to where I lived. He slowed down once I had and put his hands in his pockets, walking casually beside me.

"So, my dearest Claire...are you going to give me your phone number?" he asked after a couple minute's silence.

"Nope." I said simply.

He grinned. "And why is that?"

"Because I can't remember it." I mentally rolled my eyes at myself and immediately thought up a million different explanations. I'd told him earlier my phone was playing up. I could have just said I couldn't recieve calls or texts.

"Why don't you just check?" he asked, his tone questioning my stupidity.

I kept looking forward, almost completely ignoring him. My tone was as bored as I could get it without sounding like I was drifting off to sleep or stoned. "Can't be bothered."

"I'll check for you..." he said, his fingers moving to the rectangular shape in the pockets of my baggy army-patterned pants.

I caught his wrist. "Try that and I'll kick you where it hurts."

"Oh, I'm not scared of what a delicate little flower like you could do to me, Clairie." he said, taking his hand back anyway.

I ignored him again, looking out on the road, where Kelsi drove past with a sly smile.

"Your friends think you should date me." Lucas continued, catching the look on Kelsi's face. He sighed when I didn't say anything else, but kept walking with me.

"Hey, I'm going home. I'm _not_ going to talk to you anymore, so I suggest you turn around and hurry back to your mommy. I'll see you tomorrow." I said, stopping in the middle of the footpath and turning to him, crossing my arms.

"Fine," he muttered, looking me slowly up and down once more, then turning the other way. "See you tomorrow, Daffodil."

I got rid of my repulsed face as I started walking again, toward home.

I sagged in disappointment when I got there and Quil's car wasn't in the drive. I sighed, walking up the path and opening the door with my key. I kicked it open in annoyment at my bad day and dumped my bag at the table, taking as much junk food from the cupboard as I could and littering my hammock with it once I had gotten to my room.

I was lying side-ways in the material bed, kicking myself idly off the wall and nibbling on a candy bar when I caught a big blur of brown from the corner of my eye. I sat up, smiling when I recognised Quil. "Hey,"

"Can I help you get through those?" he asked, flopping into my hammock with me and picking up some gummy snakes.

I grinned and leaned into him, sighing as I took another bite of chocolate. Everything'd started looking better already.

"How was your day?" he asked me, running his fingers through my hair, spilled across his lap.

I twisted my mouth to the side. "We got a new guy, and he was hitting on me all day...he's the most annoying, stuck up prick I've ever met."

"What's his name?" Quil almost growled.

I frowned. Quil wasn't usually this violent to anyone I mentioned, especially if he didn't know them. "Lucas something...starting with S..." I thought back to what I'd been told earlier through the day... "Seddant." I finally spat out.

"I'll keep an ear out for that name." he said bitterly.

I giggled and poked his nose. "Is Quilly angwy?" he gave me an unamused. I smiled back. "So how was _your_ day?"

He chuckled. "Lisa hit on me a couple more times, asked where the guys she ordered were, and I got to leave early because of a lack of customers."

"Aww, you left Lisa there all by herself?!" I asked, acting dissapointed in him. I'd never really liked Lisa. She always seemed so fake, but I was starting to dislike her even more lately, which I thought was pretty stupid. I had no reason not to like her.

Quil rolled his eyes. "She can handle flirting with every guy that walks through the doors without me."

"You help her flirt with all the guys?" I joked. He stuck his tongue out at me and made a grab for mine when I did the same. "Too quick for you!" I teased, finishing off my candy bar.

Quil sighed loudly and looked around my room. "Was this the color of the place when you moved in?" he asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah...I've never really thought of painting it."

"We should. There isn't enough to pre-occupy me lately." Quil muttered. "Not to mention how many times we've complained about the color of these walls."

I thought of what I'd like to do to the walls. "Hmm...I have an idea of how to paint it. Are you gonna help me?"

"Yep." he said, sliding off the hammock. "I'm bored now, let's go now." That was quick. If it had been my father, I would've had to keep reminding him until he finally said he couldn't be bothered. As it was, I'd already asked my parents about painting my room, and Dad had said that when I was able to get it myself I could paint. Yay for Quil!

We got to the nearest hardware store and I jumped in one of the trolleys, as I always did. Quil started pushing it into the store without any hesitation. Just one of the many little things we had...

"Hello," the woman greeted us at the door, smiling warmly at the two of us. I always liked the people here.

Quil pushed me to the color cards and I leaned out of the trolley with him, picking out all the colors I could use for the vision I'd created. I finally ended up with a light, but strong pink, a hot pink and a deep black. Quil didn't question my choice in colors, but took me to the paint desk to get an estimate on how much it was going to cost.

The boy behind the counter added it up on his computer and told us both. Quil nodded and pulled out his wallet as the woman working with the boy mixed the three colors up. I caught his hands, even though both of mine were about the size of one of his, and shook my head. "I have all of my pocket money. I want to pay for it."

"But once yours is gone you won't have any." he said, handing the money across the counter to the boy.

"I need to get a job..." I sighed glumly.

He grinned and leaned against the counter, still holding the trolley with one of his feet. "Where d'you have in mind?"

"No where." I moaned, rubbing my face. "I don't want to work anywhere."

"Just get a job at the local supermarket or something." Quil suggested, thanking the woman who brought him the paint. She was struggling with one of the cans, and Quil took two of them at once with ease. He put them next to me in the trolley and waited for the last to come.

"Yeah, I'll probably just end up doing that." I muttered, liking the idea more than working at the only surf shop in the whole town where half of my school did already. I always felt out of place in shops like that.

We went out for ice cream when we left the hardware shop. Then we ate it at the park. The children across the street didn't come out to watch Quil push me on the swing like they used to.

We decided, once we finally got back to my house, not to paint my room. Quil and I agreed that it was just because we both wanted something to keep up busy when we were extremely bored in the near future and settled for watching _The Simpsons_ re-runs, instead. We both knew that we weren't really saving the painting for that reason, though. We were just incredibly lazy.

***

**So, now that I've posted this, I'm going to singing again. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed, favorited and added this story to their favourites since last chapter!**

**P.S: 50 days left! Whoop, whoop!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Hey everybody! Did you miss me?! Of course you did. Oh, and you should all feel very special. I have to sing on Wednesday, and I gave up a little bit of my practising time to check and post this chapter for you!**

**Thank yous to; ****bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, The all mighty and powerfulM, lewislahver127 and allisonlang for reviewing since I posted the last chapter. :D**

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**Chapter 13**

**QPOV**

"Quil, Honey, I know I bring you up on this every day, but do you think you could be sending in those buddies of yours anytime soon?" Lisa asked me, her feet up on the main desk as she filed her nails. The only customer in the store, an elderly woman in the classical section, picked up a certain CD for the seventh time, -- I was counting out of boredom -- looked at the back cover again and put it back on the shelf.

I smirked at Lisa. "I can't rush them. I asked them if they'd come and visit me on one of my shifts a while ago, but I don't know when they'll actually be coming in." I lied. I knew they were scheduled to come in in less than an hour. Brady, Mick and one of our newest members to the pack, Leon, had agreed to come in. Most of the wolves who hadn't yet, except for Leon, who was a massive player and didn't want to stick to just one person for the rest of his perhaps immortal days, were particularly keen on finding their Imprint, especially since Embry had left.

My thoughts now on Embry, I wondered how my best friend was doing. I had spoken to him a few times through our thoughts when both of us were in our wolf forms, but he hadn't had any luck finding his soul mate. Jacob had talked to him too, and we could both tell he was homesick. We might not have been any where near as close as we once were, but the three of us could tell each others' emotions, even through just a couple of words.

Lisa pulling her feet of the desk to change the CD playing brought me back to the present. "You didn't tell them they were only invited so I could hopefully get lucky with one of them, did you?" she asked me.

I laughed. "You don't think I want to enjoy the company of a few of my friends while I'm working?"

She rolled her eyes and took her seat again. "So how's your Claire going?"

"Alright...she's got a guy after her." I said grudgingly.

"Kick his ass!" Lisa laughed loudly, recieving a disgraced look from the old lady, picking up the CD for the ninth time.

"I was thinking about it..." I murmured. Claire had only told me about the Lucas Seddant kid once, yesterday afternoon, but I didn't want him talking to her at all if he was that up front before he'd even met her. I didn't think I was ready to let her get with any guys yet, even though I was well into dating at fourteen years myself.

Lisa straightened up and pulled the top of her bra up, showing a tiny bit of the black lace under her white shirt as the three guys walked through the door, smiling slightly.

"Guys!" I said loudly, walking over and clapping each of them on the back in turn. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Oh, hey, Quil!" Mick said, winking as he walked further into the shop. "Just came to get the new...CD..."

Lisa smiled questioningly at me from behind the counter, raising her eyebrows a little. "Uhh...guys? This is Lisa." I waved toward Lisa, who was sitting in her chair with her upper arms pressing into her chest, trying to make her bust look bigger. "Lisa, this is Brady, Leon and Mick."

The three guys looked deeply into Lisa's eyes for a few seconds, then slumped back, two of them disappointed, Leon looking slightly happy. Oh well. I hadn't expected anyone else to Imprint today, anyway.

Lisa just seemed even more flattered than she had been before from the looks they'd just given her and stood up from the chair, taking a seat on the desk. "Hey," she said, batting her eyelashes a little. Brady gave me a humoured look, to which I rolled my eyes. Typical Lisa.

Leon couldn't look more happy. He took a seat next to her, their sides touching and I could tell he was flexing his bisceps to the highest extent he could without his arms shaking. It almost made me laugh -- he was just like a younger me. I wondered if he'd act exactly like me once he, if he ever did, Imprinted.

Lisa giggled at something he'd said and pushed him with her own shoulder. He laughed with her and Mick and Brady turned to me. "So why exactly were we asked here, if Lisa's happy with one of us?"

"What did you expect to come out of it?" I asked him lazily, wincing slightly from Lisa's shriek as Leon grabbed her and made an attempt to dig his fingers into her ribs.

Mick smirked. "Brady here was hoping for a orgy, at least." he dodged Brady's hand as he aimed for his head and laughed loudly.

The old woman finally came to the desk, with the CD she'd looked at at least twelve times. She looked at the five of us, obviously confused, even though Lisa and I were the only ones in the stores' trade marked shirts.

I sighed and walked behind the counter, smiling down at her and holding my hand out for the CD. She handed it to me and shuffled through her purse for a couple of minutes before finally handing me the money. I printed out her reciept and put them both in a bag, which I gave to her.

"Thank you." she said quietly, walking toward the door at a slow pace, looking at the DVDs on the shelf next to her as she went.

Brady checked his watch and frowned slightly. "Hey, Quil...it's Wednesday, isn't it?"

"Mm-hm." I said, smiling a little. I picked Claire up from school today.

"It's three." Brady told me, lowering his hand and giving me a look.

I cursed loudly and tore my work shirt off, changing into the shirt I'd arrived in and stuffing my uniform into my bag. Lisa didn't even look this time, which was a first. She was too bury flirting with Leon.

"I've gotta go get Claire." I said, swinging the bag over my shoulder and running toward the door. I didn't bother saying goodbye to any of them. Leon and Lisa obviously wouldn't care, and Brady and Mick knew Claire was more important than work. I was going to be so late to pick her up, and I realized I hadn't looked at the clock once today.

I got into my truck and slammed the door behind me, jamming my keys into their place and starting it as quickly as I could. It _finally _started working, then lurched forward, out onto the road. I started speeding in the direction of Claire's school.

**CPOV**

"Claire!" an annoyingly stuck up voice called from behind me. I took a long sip of my Coke, cleared my throat, then stuffed my whole muffin into my mouth, just as Lucas took the seat next to me. "How are you today?"

I spoke jibberish, not that he'd know anyway, my muffin spraying out of my mouth and covering him everywhere. Kelsi and Sally gagged, Dyllan, Cory and Zach chuckled to themselves, and Lucas brushed himself off, not looking as disgusted as I had planned and hoped. I frowned to myself. I thought that one would've worked.

"So I was wondering..." he began, leaning toward me and smiling slightly.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, looking the other way. "Just spit it out, Lucas." I had a feeling this was going to be grosser than the muffin I'd just spit all over him.

"Call me Luke!" he insisted, taking my hand. I pulled it out of his grasp. God, he had some nerve. "I was wondering if you'd reconsider your answer from yesterday?"

I ignored him and turned to Sally and Kelsi. "So, Quil's picking me up today." Not something they'd usually be interested in, but I was risking their boredom for my sanity.

"Who's Quil?" Lucas asked suddenly. I ignored that, too.

I thought givng him the silent treatment all day would just make him piss off, but apparently not. He followed me around the whole day, just like a puppy. That pissed _me_ off. Kelsi and Sally couldn't have been more jealous. I couldn't have been more irritated.

In last period, the creep cleared the seat next to me and sat down, putting his arm around my shoulders. I kept looking forward, letting the words he said run through my left ear and leave out my right. I suddenly felt sorry for Gigi Bronson. She had guys like this all over her all the time. Oh, wait -- she liked this. Bitch.

"Claire?"

"What?" I hissed as it neared the last five minutes of the school day. Thank God Quil was picking me up this afternoon. That would be the only good thing that I'd get out of today. I hoped he was already out there, waiting for the bell to ring. I'd be able to run out of the class room and jump straight into his car.

"You haven't given me your answer yet." he said.

I moaned and slumped forward, my head hitting the cradle of my arms. "I don't want to go out with you, okay, Lucas?"

"Luke," he reminded me.

I looked back up, glaring at him slightly. "I don't want to go out with you, okay, _Luke?_"

He nodded slowly. "Okay, Claire. But this is the first time I've ever been turned down."

"Guess you've picked the wrong kind of girl this time." I murmured, sliding my books into my bag.

He put his in his bag, following me. "Yeah, but she's also the prettiest."

"You're still going to keep asking me out, aren't you?" I asked, annoyed at him.

"Probably." he admitted, grinning.

I narrowed my eyes and stood from the desk as the bell rang. "You won't be able to follow me home today." I said, the disappointment quite obviously mock in my voice.

I walked from my seat, hoping he wasn't following and waved goodbye to any of my friends that I saw. Walking up the path to the parking lot, I looked around for the familiar, rusted truck that I loved the best. I couldn't see it anywhere, and it wasn't the kind of thing that didn't stick out.

I walked around the parking lot once, my eyes locking on each car that drove in and out of it. Quil definitely wasn't here.

I sighed and sat on the path, watching out for him. I'd already had a bad enough day, not to mention the major PMS mood I was in...and to make matters even more lovely, the king of annoyance himself decided to take a seat right next to me.

"Where's this Quil guy?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "He's never been late before."

Lucas snorted. "Hey, I know you're all from the Quileute tribe and that, but don't you think his parents took it a little too far...'Quil'..."

"His grandfather's name was Quil." I told him savagely, protective over my best friend. "And he died a couple of years ago, so I'd appreciate it if you'd shut up."

Lucas sighed and wrapped his arm around me. I put my chin on my arms, my elbows resting on my knees. "I'm sorry." he said, rubbing my shoulder.

I didn't say anything else, but every time I heard even the slightest car movement, my eyes would snap up to the corner in case Quil's truck was driving down the road. No such luck any time, though.

Lucas started saying some things to me a few times, but I didn't say anything back. Being so stuck-up, he probably didn't notice anyway.

Quil's truck finally puttered down the road and stopped just in front of us. I pulled myself out of Luke's grasp and grabbed my bag from my feet, standing up quickly and running to the passenger's door. Lucas waited until the door was open to call out for me.

"See you tomorrow, beautiful!"

I slammed the door, drowning him out and pulled my feet up on the car's seat as Quil started driving down the road.

"Who was that?" he asked as soon as Luke was out of view. I praised myself for not rolling down Quil's window and giving Lucas a good look of my middle finger.

I looked at him, irritated. "Where the hell were you?"

"I got caught up at work...who was that?" he repeated.

I slumped back in my seat, thinking his answer was okay enough. It was that he was here now that mattered. And it mattered because I had someone that wasn't swooning over the object of my annoyment that I could whine to. "That was that annoying Lucas kid I was telling you about..."

Quil sighed and sped up. I looked out the window at the forest passing us, wishing he'd say something. He wasn't usually this quiet. What he got caught up in at work must have been bothering him...

When we got home, we both walked into my room and started clearing out all of my furniture. Every day since we'd bought the paint, I'd brought up actually getting it done a few times. I could tell he was getting sick of it.

Quil piled it up in the hallway and I passed out all the lighter things out. Within half an hour, my room was perfectly bare. We filled the paint trays, one with pink paint and another with black. He stood back and put his hands in his pockets. "So...what do you want to do, exactly?"

I chewed the inside of my lip and looked around. "Urmmm...we'll...paint that wall, the one with the window and the one with the door pink, then the one to the right black. Then I want to do things over the top."

He nodded and picked up a paint roller, dipping it into the paint, turning to the wall and rolling a layer of paint on. The walls were already a light cream, so we wouldn't need to put more than a layer of the colors we had on them.

As we painted, we talked about little things like usual. We already knew what was happening in each other's lives to not need detail to what had happened through the day. Quil growled every time I said Luke's name, but I assured him that I'd never fall for him. Well, I _tried_ to assure him.

"If you said you don't like him, he should get the picture and _leave you alone!_" he said, almost slamming the roller onto the wall. The paint that had been absorbed into it flew back from it and hit him in the face, leaving little black speckles all over him.

"I know, right?" I stood on my tip toes to try and get a little higher where I was. Quil was suddenly standing behind me and took the roller off me, painting the higher bit. "Thanks..."

"It's alright." he breathed, painting quicker than I'd ever be able to.

I leaned against the window sill and looked down on my garden, into the forest, deep in thought. I was feeling so different lately -- about people around me, as well as just inside of me. Kelsi and Sally were becoming extremely annoying with their habits and ordinary personalities, the Quileutes seemed more interesting and family than my own parents, and Quil...I frowned and shook my head to myself. That wasn't right...

"Finished." he said, a while after we'd started, coming up behind me again and putting his hands on either side of me. He rested his chin on my head and looked out the window. I closed my eyes, listening to his breathing and spun around to face him without thinking as he lifted his head to say something else.

He took a step back away from me, smirking slightly. "What do you think?"

I looked at the wall and smiled, wondering what the hell was wrong with myself. "Beautiful."

"Now, while they're drying, what'd you have in mind for over the top?"

We ended up painting the wall with the window with squares and checks, including a couple of hearts, just out of my boredom, doing random spirals and things on the wall with the doors, and speckling the walls opposite each other. The pink one we speckled with black, but we were waiting for the black paint to dry properly so we could speckle it with pink.

"Awesome." he sighed, throwing the roller down on the sheet we'd used to cover my carpet. "We'll splatter that other wall tomorrow or something."

"Thanks, Quil." I said, hugging him. He pulled me into his warm chest, letting me rest my head against him.

"We'd better get all of your stuff back in here, or your parents'll kill me."

"Ah 'kay," I let go of him as he pulled away to walk to the door and get all of my things. If my dad found out how little a time we'd left it to paint over the base colors of the walls, he'd kill us, anyway.

We pushed all of my furniture into the centre of the walls, being very careful not to touch the walls. He said I'd have to sleep on my matress tonight, because my hammock wouldn't be able to be put up. I snapped and told him I could've worked that out for myself, then felt guilty instantly.

When we were finished and he was watching me cook dinner, my parents got home.

"Hi," Mom said, walking into the kitchen and setting her purse on the table in front of Quil. "How was your day?"

"Eh," Quil and I both said at the same time.

Mom smiled and rolled her eyes as my dad walked in. "What the hell's all that in your room?!"

"You said we could paint it." I reminded him, dishing up two plates and putting one down for Quil. "I asked you last week."

"Mmm," Dad said, sitting down at the table and looking enquiringly at me. I sighed and stood up again, getting him a plate of food, too.

"Mom're you hungry?"

She shook her head absently and went to sit in the living room. I stared after her before returning to the table.

When my mother was feeling up to come back and talk to us, she and Dad brought up a trip they were taking for work. I looked up, excited. They used to go on these trips all the time when I was younger, but they hadn't been on one for a while. It was about time.

"It's only for two nights, and we were wondering if you'd be able to have Claire stay with you..." Mom said, trailing off for Quil's answer.

"Pfft, no. I don't want _her_ under my roof." he joked, stuffing his face with a smirk.

My mother laughed and hit his arm playfully. "Thanks, Quil."

He shook his head, in a gesture to tell her it was no trouble, trying to swallow.

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**Hmmmm.......... Hey! You should all review! It would make me sooooooooooo happy! I would love seven reviews before I update again!**

**Wish me luck for Wednesday!**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Hi everybody! Just posting the fourteenth chapter. It's a little shorter than most of them, but it's kind of a lead up. I wrote chapter fifteen to show off Quil's protective side, so I needed a good reason for it.**

**Thank you to the people who added my story to their favourite and alert lists, and to; ****lewislahver127, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, allisonlang and Kara ****for reviewing. You're the people who keep me posting chapters!**

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**Chapter 14**

"Claire, you coming tonight?"

"Hmm?" I asked, glancing up at Kelsi. The cafeteria around me came back into view, parting me with the secret place Quil and I had found years back.

She rolled her eyes. "Where've you been lately? We were talking about that party at Luke's house tonight...you were the first person invited. Are you coming?"

"No, I don't think so." I said quietly.

"But you've never come to any parties before!" she protested, pouting slightly.

"I don't really think I'd enjoy them..."

"Oh, you would!" Sally said, joining Kelsi's other side. "They're the best."

I pulled through my mind to find something else to blame my not coming on. "Oh, I'm sleeping at Quil's house tonight. I don't want him to have to get up to pick me up in the middle of the night."

"Then just stay at Luke's house...I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with that anyway." Sally grinned mischeviously as I swiped for her head.

"Fine," Kelsi said loudly. "I guess you'll just have to miss out on all the fun. We'll be thinking about you, though..."

"Thanks, Kelce." I muttered, joining the line in the cafeteria. My face changed from annoyed to helpless as I saw Lucas sitting at our usual table. He lifted his hand and waved when he noticed me looking. I looked down at my tray, away from him as Kelsi and Sally both smiled in his direction.

"Aww, he's so cute!" Sally said, adored as she grabbed an apple and left the line. "And he's so perfect for you."

"I don't think so."

"Claire, shut up. Who else is there to get with around here?" Kelsi muttered, pulling her lips down at a couple of guys we walked past.

"Ooh, that hot Leon guy that just stopped coming to school!" Sally said, bouncing slightly. "He was yummy!"

"He was dating three girls at once..."

"I know...like, John Tucker much?! But still..."

I blanked their chatter out, as I normally did and sat in the chair as far from Lucas as I could get.

"Hello there Claire, my little petal. How are you on this fine morning?"

"Shut up." I told him, grabbing my sandwich and biting furiously into it. "Why're you here again?"

"I heard you weren't coming to my party, and I'm gonna keep asking until you say you are." he said, smiling widely.

"Piss off." I told him, spitting the sandwich on my tray as I tasted onion. The teacher closest to me gave me a disapproving look and turned the other way before I could give her an apologetic face.

Lucas grabbed the other half of my sandwich and began to pick off the onion for me. I held myself back from grabbing his neck and strangling him as I noticed he'd pulled off a tiny piece of lettuce from the bread, as well. "Aw, please Claire? It won't be the same without you.

"Yeah, one less girl for you to make out with."

He grinned at me and passed my sandwich back. "You _have _to come. I'll make sure you do."

"I'm leaving the country." I told him. "I'm moving to Alaska to study global warming and the effects it's having on the krill depletion." Kelsi snorted into her Yo-Go, thick chocolate coming out of it and sticking it her hair. She pouted and asked Sally to help her pick it out.

Lucas shook his head and moved a couple of seats toward me, putting his arm around my shoulders. "You'll come. I know you can't resist me."

I ignored him, eating my sandwich and trying to hold back all the anger and frustration that was seeping out of me. Why couldn't they just leave me alone?!

***

I was so happy when Quil showed up at my house, walking in to my now-completed room to alert me of his presence. "Ready to go?"

I nodded and picked up my bag, throwing it over my shoulder and following him out to the truck. "Lucas keeps annoying me. He was sitting at our table again today...they were all asking me to a party tonight."

"Ah, still on about the parties?"

"Apparently I'm the only one in the whole year who's never been to one." I said, rolling my eyes at Sally's remark.

"Do you want to go to one now?"

"Not at all...I just don't like being left too far out of the loop." I said.

He nodded as we pulled up in front of his house. "I know how that feels..."

"What? Weren't you always the guy who was in on everything?"

"When Embry left me and Jake, and then Jake left, I was the only one for a while. I didn't have any idea what had happened to my friends, and then I phased, and it was like...the freakiest thing on the whole planet. But, of course, this is just a party, as opposed to spending a life time half-human."

He sighed and jumped out of his truck once we'd stopped out the front of his apartment. He walked straight to my side and opened the door for me. I pouted as the freezing air hit me and grabbed his hand, helping my ankles a little as I hit the ground.

When we were inside, I walked straight to my room and dumped my things in there, then I met Quil in the living room.

"Uhh...what do you wanna do?"

I shrugged. "I'm easy." I bit my lip as I heard the words again. Quil smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Teenagers..."

I stuck my tongue out at him, resisting the urge to tell him he was still only sixteen, no matter what he said, and jumped slightly as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out, glanced at the screen and narrowed my eyes.

"Hello?"

_"Weeell, hey howdy hey, Claire!"_ Sally sung into the phone.

I rolled my eyes. "What?"

She giggled._ "My and mah good friend Kelce was just a-wondering if you was gonna show up tonight?"_

"How many times do I have to tell you, Sally?!" I groaned. "I'm-not-going!"

Sally sighed. _"Okay."_

"Thank you."

_"You're at Quil's, right? We'll see you in half an hour..."_

"No, Sall--" I moaned as the line went dead and slid my phone shut, chucking it on the couch next to me.

"What did she want?" Quil asked, walking closer.

I pouted at him. "She thinks she and Kelsi are coming around to take me to Lucas's party tonight...maybe we could leave now...go to Jake's or something?"

Quil shook his head and sat down on his arm chair, taking one of my hands. "Naw, I should let you out for _one_ night." he said, much to my surprise. "I was thinking when you brought it up earlier today...you've never been to a typical teenage party before, and I used to spend half of my nights at them. I've gotta let you grow up sometime."

"Quil, seriously, I don't _have_ to go," I began, thinking of multiple reasons why I'd much rather stay at home with him and have our usual night of movies and junk food, not to mention the talk about Embry I hadn't gotten for a while.

Quil smiled and pulled me to him, making me sit on his lap. "I actually _want_ you to go. You've never had the chance to have a normal life, and growing up's the funnest time..." he sighed and kissed the corner of my left eye. "And I'm sometimes sorry about bringing you into all of the mythical creatures stuff."

"Not mythical." I corrected automatically, hugging him around his neck. "And I'm glad I was brought into it."

Again, I was wondering why I _had_ been brought into it. It wasn't as if there were other humans that didn't know -- Kim, Emily, Rachel and all the other Imprints knew. But I _wasn't _an Imprint. I was just a relative of an Imprint.

Considering Imprints...no. Of course not. I'd have known years before if I was one myself. It wasn't something the wolves kept from their soul mates.

I sat on Quil's lap and talked to him for about twenty-five minutes, and then Kelsi and Sally decided to show up and make the rest of my night crap.

"Don't you dare!" I almost shrieked as Sally opened her makeup bag and attempted to swing her eyeliner at me.

She and Kelsi, who was busy with a red-hot hair straightener at my ear, both giggled to themselves. "Oh, shut up and close your eyes, Claire." she said, moving the eyeliner back to my face.

I sighed and gave in, closing my eyes gently and frowning against the pencil as Kelsi gave a rough tug. "Kelce, what the hell?!"

"Sorry, but you had one curl that just wouldn't-come-_out!"_

I pulled my eyebrows together in frustration and anger. "What was wrong with how I straightened it this morning?!"

"Your straightener obvioiusly sucks, or you do, because your hair's still wavy. Now shut up and get your makeup done."

I sighed and leaned further into my chair, ignoring them as they stabbed at my face and ripped at my hair. I heard a deep chuckle from the bathroom door and my eyes snapped open, taking in Quil leaning against the open door, watching us all with an amused expression. He must've been about to take a shower, before he knew his bathroom had been taken over by teenage girls. He had removed his shirt, and his sweat pants were low on his hips. I tore my eyes away, glancing sideways, into the mirror.

Sally and Kelsi were watching him hungrilly, almost licking their lips. They both had the same small smiles on their faces, like they were in a daze.

I almost boiled over in fury. _How dare_ they look at Quil like that?! _My_ Quil! I frowned. He wasn't mine. My best friend hadn't had a date for years, which didn't mean he had permission to go out with either of my only girl friends my age, but I wasn't about to stand in the way of him getting to anyone else.

"Well, I was just about to hop in the shower, but I guess I can wait." he said after a few seconds of silence, still smirking at me.

Kelsi and Sally shook their heads. "No, get in!" Kelsi said loudly, her shaking turning to nodding.

"We don't mind at all..._please!" _Sally all but begged.

Quil gave me a look and shook his head, turning and walking out of the doorway.

"Can you two just bottle up your urges next time and not rip your clothes off in front of my best friend?!" I scolded them angrilly.

Sally giggled and rolled her eyes. "Jeeze, Claire! Get over it. We were just admiring what was in front of us."

"And I know we've been drooling over Lucas, but I don't think he'll be in our thought from now on...yum!" Kelsi said, bouncing slightly.

I blocked them out again, hoping Quil wouldn't think I was as immature and stupid as my friends.

After a painful forty-five minutes, Kelsi and Sally let me stand from the side of the bath tub. I looked at myself in the mirror, my eyes widening as I realized the person looking back at me was my own reflection.

My hair was dead-straight -- the kind of way I had never been able to accomplish by myself. Sally had done my makeup so it blended from black to purple with a thick layer of eyeliner on my bottom lid. Dark blush was on my high cheekbones, defining them even more, and my lips were shining from a gooey lip gloss that Sally now shoved into my hand.

"You're going to need that...you always lick your lip balm off, and knowing what Lucas has planned for you tonight, it's not going to last a few seconds after you apply it."

"What?" I snarled dangerously, slidling the lip gloss into the pocket of my baggy pants.

Kelsi and Sally exchanged a glance. "Luke...told everyone you'd said yes to a hot make out session with him."

"I did not!"

"It's not like you'll be saying no anyway! It's _Lucas Seddant!"_

"So, of course, I'll be saying no!" I said, saying it slowly for them to comprehend my words.

"For all you know, he's a better kisser than anyone else you've ever gotten with." Kelsi almost cried.

I hesitated. I'd never actually kissed someone before, proving how different I really was to Kelsi and Sally. They'd both been with so many guys none of us could count. They didn't need to know that, though.

"I'm not going to make out with Lucas tonight." I said, turning toward the door.

Quil stood from the armchair, looking almost startled, then he composed his face. "Claire...you look...different."

"Different good, or different bad?" I asked him warily.

He shook his head. "Not bad...just...not my Claire."

_I'll wash it off,_ I mimed to him, glad Kelsi and Sally were standing behind me.

He shook his head once and walked into the hall, probably going to the linen closet to get a towel or something so he could finally have his shower.

"Okay, guys I know my makeup took forever for you to do, but I just don't think it'll go with anything I have packed, and it certainly doesn't work with the whole army look..." I motioned to what I was wearing already. "So, can I just wash a little off and then I'll go?"

"You're not wearing that." Kelsi said, dragging me to my own room. "I brought something for you."

"What is it?" I asked cautiously.

She sat me on my bed and opened her big purse, which fit just about everything but her kitchen sink in it, and pulled out a tight purple shirt with a low neck line and a pair of tight black jeans. "Put them on. Now."

I gave her a glare before shutting the door and yanking off my top, pulling the purple one on. "Kelsi, you're so much thinner than me! This is way too tight."

"I'm not thinner, Claire." she said, looking like she approved of how I was looking in her shirt. "I just don't have curves and boobs. It looks better on you."

Sally nodded along with her and chucked the jeans at me.

"These are _my_ jeans!" I told them as I pulled them on, recognising the tag and the stains on the side of the right leg.

"I borrowed them a few months ago." Sally said casually. "I thought I'd told you?"

"I was looking for them." I muttered.

"Oh...guess I didn't, then." she said absently, looking out the window. "It's starting to get dark...we'll have to go now."

I sighed and turned to the floor-length mirror in the corner of my room. Not happy with my reflection, but knowing I wouldn't get out of it anyway, I ran my fingers through my perfectly straight hair and walked to the door. "Let's go."

I poked my head out of the door, looking up and down the hall. "Quil?"

He opened the bathroom door, still not fully undressed. He must've just got in there. "Yeah, Claire-bear?"

"Uhh...we're going now. So, I'll see you later tonight?"

He nodded. "I'll come and pick you up if you want me to. Just call."

I nodded and smiled, walking forward and giving him a tight hug. "Thanks." I whispered in his ear. "I'll spend the whole day with you tomorrow."

"It's okay." he said as he released me and kissed my hair -- he was cautious about touching the makeup on my face.

Kelsi and Sally followed me eagerly, but I grabbed their hands and pulled them away from him.

"Aww!" they both whined as soon as we had left the apartment.

I ignored them, letting them take over the pulling and got towed all the way to Lucas' house.

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**There ya go. Read and review, please! If I get at least seven reviews, I'll post early. You know you want to!**

**Oh, P.S; 37 days until New Moon! Yeah, that's right!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Because of the wonderful people who reviewed (****vicky-twilight-obsessed****, ****The all mighty and powerfulM****, ****bookworm1545****, ****lewislahver127****, ****Razor456****, ****Ginaaaa, Asha123, ****and ****Xnisanyx****), chapter fifteen's early! I just wanted to say that I took out a couple of chapters between chapter thirteen and fifteen, so I'm sorry if I removed something critical to the story. I've checked, but I may have missed something. Just tell me if you need to.**

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**Chapter 15**

Lucas's house was one of the biggest in La Push, proving Zach's suspicions that he had money. There was loud music blasting from the open windows and door and already it looked like more than half the middle and high school years were here. Perfect. This was exactly how my darling friends had explained this kind of get-togethers.

"Sally, Kelsi, Claire!" Dyllan called, waving from where he was standing with Cory and Zach. The three of them were holding bottles of alcohol, and Zach already looked pretty wasted.

"How long've you three been here for?" Sally asked, taking the beer from Cory's hand and leaning into him.

"Half an hour." Dyllan said, smiling down at me as I joined the others on the porch. "What took you so long?"

"We made Claire up. How hot does she look?!" Kelce said, smiling at the three of them.

Dyllan and Cory nodded. "She so does." Zach slurred, putting his arm around my shoulders.

I smiled uncomfortably and wondered how late these parties usually finished. I was surrounded by my close and not-so-close friends, and none of them were acting normal. To make matters worse, Lucas walked out of the house with a can I didn't recognise and, noticing me, walked straight over with a sly smirk.

"Who's this sexy thang?" he asked, walking in between Zach and myself so my friend didn't have any options but to remove his arm.

Kelsi laughed and pushed his arm flirtatiously. "How've you been, Luke?"

"Mm," he said, shrugging. "How 'bout you, Claire?"

"I was going okay," I muttered. "Until Sally and Kelce dragged me around here..."

"Ooh, snap!" he chuckled, kissing my hair. I moved out of his way, leaning into Dyllan. Lucas was almost drunk already, from what I could tell, so I didn't want to even think about the state he'd ben in in a couple of hours. Hopefully I'd find some excuse to leave before then... "Ah 'kay, well, there's food and drinks inside, and music. I have to go socialize, but you can count on my coming back to you, my love." he pointed to me, then walked back inside.

I sighed and folded my arms, smiling at Dyllan as he rubbed my shoulders. "Just ignore him." he comforted me. "No one really likes him, anyway."

"I dunno, Dyl," Kelsi said guiltily. "I think I do..."

"Shut the fuck up." Dyllan hissed.

Kelsi stuck her tongue out at him, grabbed my hand in one of hers and Sally's in the other, and pulled us into Lucas's house.

"Jordan!" she shrieked, waving and blowing a kiss to a boy a year older than us. Jordan made a motion to show that he'd caught her kiss and smiled back at her. "Where's the drinks?" she murmured, still pulling us into the house.

Everywhere we turned, there would be several people in my vision. At least half of these people were making out. All of them had alcohol in their hands. Kelsi opened the door on two people from my science class in a bedroom, said a quick sorry and closed the door quickly, pulling us along as if it wasn't a big deal at all.

"Ah hah!" Sally yelled, pointing in front of us.

There was a whole table completely taken up by alcohol, around which people were talking, laughing or dancing.

"Put some clothes on!" Sally shouted jokingly to Gigi Bronson, who gave her a glare before pulling a guy that didn't go to our school back to her mouth.

Kelsi poured herself and Sally a cup of something I couldn't place a name with, then turned to me. "What're ya havin'?"

"Water?" I asked hesitantly.

"Aw, come on, Claire!" Sally said, grabbing her cup and pushing it toward me. "Have a try."

I took a sip of the unknown liquid unwillingly, then spat it back into the cup after half a second. "Yuck! What the hell is that?!"

"You're such a loser." Kelsi muttered, taking a sip of her own as Sally grabbed her cup off me again. "Here," she grabbed one of the cups and filled it at the sink, passing it to me. "At least find some food dye or something...I don't wanna be seen hanging around with you if you're not gonna drink anything."

"It tastes really bad!" I protested.

Sally shrugged. "So?"

I sighed and drank all of my water, looked around for somewhere to put my cup, then gave up, throwing it to the floor where there were a hundred other used cups.

"Let's dance." Sally said excitedly, grabbing my hand in her free one and pulling me out the back.

There were yet more people out here. I wondered how Lucas knew so many people for someone who'd only lived here for such a short amount of time. Then again, he probably knew less than I did, and all of the others had just heard about it and come. Yeah, I'd seen _Mean Girls._

Kelsi and Sally started grinding in the middle of the yard, attracting attention from a few guys immediately. The two of them laughed and finished off their drinks, dropping their cups as more and more people joined them. I stood at the door awkwardly, wonderng just why they had wanted me to come so badly. Maybe I could sneak off without them noticing...

"Hey," a tall boy said, taking a few steps toward me.

"Hi," I smiled. He was at least a head and a half taller than me, then again, I was kind of short for my age. He had light blonde hair and green eyes, telling me straight away that he didn't belong to our school. He leaned against the wall beside me, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"How're you?" he asked, as if we knew each other already.

"I'm okay...you?" I turned to him.

"Good," he laughed. "I'm Brad." he held out his hand.

"Claire," I said, shaking it.

He smiled and leaned back against the wall. "Are they your friends?" he asked, pointing out to Kelsi and Sally, who were now in between three guys, but still groping each other.

"Mm-hm."

"Are they together?" he asked me.

I snorted. "No!"

"That's good." he said, sounding happy. "Because I wanna ask the blond one out."

"You mean the blond one with the black roots? That's Kelsi."

"Kelsi." he repeated, nodding once. Okay, he was stoned.

He smiled once more, before going off to dance with them. I sighed and slid down the wall a couple of inches, wishing for the night to go quickly.

It didn't. After an hour of socialising with brain-dead strangers, I was still wondering what the hell I had been asked here for. Lucas hadn't come back to see me, and I was hoping he wouldn't, and Kelsi had made her way out of everyone's view with Brad. Sally was now mauling Cory in a corner, making me wonder how all of this would turn out for our group. Sally may have been exceptionally drunk, but Cory wasn't that close to it, and he did look deliriously happy.

"Hey, Claire." Dyllan said, sitting on the couch next to me. "How's it goin'?"

I pouted. "I'm never coming to one of these parties again."

"Aww, they get fun! Just...have some more to drink."

I shook my head. "Tastes like crap."

He chuckled. "Okay, then."

"There you are, Princess!" an annoying voice sounded behind us. I frowned and put my face in my hands, wishing everything would go away. I'd already tried to leave a couple of times, but someone I knew would steer me away from the road and drag me back to talk to them. Then they'd leave me a couple of minutes later.

"What?" I asked unhappily as Lucas sat on the arm rest beside me.

"I just wanted to talk to you." he said, smiling down at me. He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and traced my lips. "Do you want something to drink?"

"No."

"Alright." he stood up, motioned for Dyllan to get out of his seat, and took his place. "Are you having fun?"

"Not at all." I said honestly.

He sighed and wrapped his arm around me. "That's a shame."

I sat silently, wondering when he'd go away. Sally broke away from our friend to answer a text message, then, with a seductive smile at Cory, she dragged him into a deserted room with the collar of his shirt. I sighed and looked at my feet, wondering if it was because I was about a year younger than the rest of my friends (and almost two years younger than a certain ass hole) that I didn't enjoy these kind of things.

After ten minutes of ignoring Lucas on his couch, a fight broke out right in front of us. I don't know what it was about, and I was pretty sure no one else in the place did, either, but everyone cheered them on, swore at them and laughed, anyway.

"Oh my God," I said, moving out of the way as the two boys crashed onto it right next to Lucas, who was just laughing. "I'm going," I murmured, standing and walking toward the front door. Lucas caught my hand on the way out.

"Aw, Claire, it's just a little fun." he insisted, smiling down at me. I scrunched my nose away from his breath. He smelled strongly of alcohol, though he wasn't nearly as drunk as some of my other friends here, and the way he talked suggested he'd been drinking more than he could have. I wondered if he was just playing it up a little bit.

"I have to get going, any way." I told him, glancing at the clock on the kitchen wall.

He shook his head. "Claire," he whined. "It's dark outside. That's dangerous for someone as good looking as you."

"Lucas..." I started hesitantly.

"No, Luke." he reminded me, covering my mouth with his hand. "Hey, I'll walk you home, okay?"

"I'm not staying at my house tonight." I told him. "I'm staying at my friend's house."

"Quil?"

"Mm-hm. Can I go now?" I asked him.

He shook his head, smiling. "Naw, you'll start having fun soon. Let's go outside."

I let him walk me out, then I turned back to him. "I think I should go now." I said again.

He grabbed my wrists as I made to turn away and looked at me closely. "I told you, Claire. It's too dangerous this late at night. I'll walk you home."

"Don't worry about it." I told him sternly, trying my hardest to pull my hands back to myself. "I'll call Quil."

I pulled out my phone and began to dial the number. Lucas opened his mouth to interrupt me as I put the phone to my ear, but he didn't need to -- my phone ran out of charge as soon as I pressed the 'call' button. I sighed in frustration and considered throwing it to the ground. It _always_ ran out at times I needed it most.

"What's wrong, Claire dearest?" Lucas asked me, throwing his arm around my shoulder.

I sighed and checked the road, satisfied when I saw the pay phone only a couple of metres from the front of the house on the sidewalk. "Hey, can I borrow some change? I need to call from the pay phone."

He smiled and reached into his pocket, handing me a handful of coins. "Anything for my Claire."

"Thanks, Luke." I said, turning to the phone.

"Wait!" he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me back to him. "Claire, I asked you here for a reason."

_Don't you dare! I was so close! _"But I'm not staying anymore, Lucas. I'm going now."

He shook his head. "No, Claire, just another hour or something?"

I looked longingly at the phone, then turned back to him, knowing I wouldn't have a choice whether I wanted to stay or not; he was a lot stronger than me. "What is it, Lucas?"

"Luke," he said, walking forward so I was backed up into the side of the house. "Why don't you ever call me Luke?"

"I do...sometimes." I said, trying to find a strategy of worming my way around him.

He was really starting to freak me out. He started leaning forward, and I pulled my head up so he couldn't reach my face with his own. "No, Luke..."

"What?"

"You're drunk...you don't know what you're doing. Stop."

He shook his head and kissed the side of my mouth. "I know what I'm doing, Claire."

"Well, will you stop anyway?" I asked him as he kissed the other side.

He chuckled, the scent of the alcohol he'd been drinking rushing into my face and leaned toward me so our noses were pressed up together, the back of my head up against the wook of his house.

"Lucas..."

"Luke," he said, kissing my mouth roughly.

I scrunched my eyes up and put my hand on his chest, trying to push him away from me. He grabbed my hands and held them together, not letting me put them anywhere but in the space between us where his were, too.

He was too strong for me -- every time I tried to move it was impossible. I finally gave up and stood there, glaring at him and waiting until he decided to open his eyes.

After a whole two minutes, he stopped, smiling down at me serenely. I was still glaring at him, which made him laugh and brush my hair. "Wasn't that amazing?"

I shook my head in disbelief, pulling my hands out of his while he wasn't concentrating on holding me there, and walked away quickly, grabbing the right change out of my pocket and shoving it into the pay phone's slot.

_"Hello?"_ Quil asked, sounding a little alarmed. _"Claire, is that you?"_

I didn't realize I had been crying until I sniffed into the phone. I wasn't angry at myself at all. I'd been waiting to find the perfect person to have my first kiss with. "Quil, can you please come and pick me up ASAP?"

_"Claire, what's wrong?"_

"Don't worry. Just...come and get me please."

_"What's the address?"_

I gave him the street name and house number and he told me he'd be a couple of minutes. I knew he's be speeding the whole way here.

I hung up the phone and walked out to the sidewalk to wait for him. A few guys behind me were calling out my name, but I didn't turn around.

"Claire," Lucas sighed from right behind me. I concentrated on a street lamp up the road. If I ran into the forest right now he wouldn't be able to see me. It was too dark. "Come inside with me."

"Naw, I'm going home." I told him, glancing up the road as I heard a car. None came this way, though.

"Please, Claire? I'm sure we could find an empty room or something..." he trailed off, waving at a couple of people who shouted out his name.

I gave him the dirtiest look I could. "Shut up, Luke. I don't like you like that, okay? Besides, I'm way too young for you."

He gave me that same annoying smirk and grabbed my hand. "Claire...you always put on a fucking act, don't you?"

I snorted, continuing to watch the road for some sign of Quil's truck. "I don't put on any acts, Lucas."

"I said call me _Luke!" _he said loudly, glaring at me in amazement. "Why can't you understand that?!"

"What?" I asked in confusion. Where had this new attitude come from?

He chuckled softly. "Come here, I wanna show you something."

"Quil'll be here in a sec."

"No, come here." he said, pulling against my arm.

"Stop it, Luke!" I almost screamed, pulling back on his hand.

He sighed heavily and wrapped his other hand around mine, pulling me to the thick forest on the side of his house...

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**Will Quil be able to save the day?! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...I considered posting the next chapter with this because I was so bored, but then I decided against it. As soon as I get seven reviews for this chapter I'll post it. Maybe sooner if my boredom doesn't let up.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Hey! I was so happy with all the reviews I got that I'm going to post chapter 16 now! Thank you to the beautiful people who reviewed chapter 15; ****Razor456, Clina1j, lewislahver127, Ginaaaa, Xolilstar414oX, bookworm1545, twi-luver, Hanna, allisonlang, The all mighty and powerfulM and . You guys make me so, so happy!**

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**Chapter 16**

**QPOV**

I'd been pacing my apartment since I'd gotten out of my shower, glancing at the clock every few secnonds to check how long she'd been there for.

_Get a grip,_ I told myself angrilly. _You were the one who told her she should go! This has gotta be at least a little bit good for her._

I was just about to watch a movie when my phone started ringing. I ran to it as quickly as I could, hoping more than I thought I could that it wasn't a call to say Claire had been hurt by drunken idiots.

It was an annonymous number, but I answered it anyway. "Hello? Claire, is that you?"

Claire sniffed, making my stomach clench and worrying me even more. _"Quil, can you please come and pick me up ASAP?"_

"Claire, what's wrong?" I asked her. I wanted to know what was wrong with her straight away so I could damage the people who had caused it beyond repair. Not to mention how clenched my stomach already was, hearing all the words in the background I'd stopped saying since I'd started hanging around with her.

_"Don't worry."_ she told me, then swallowed. _"Just...come and get me please."_

"What's the address?" I asked her, glad my memory had improved a little after my phasing for the first time.

Claire gave me the address after a few seconds hesitation, probably trying to remember the exact numbers. I nodded, though I knew she couldn't see me. "Okay, Claire-bear, I'll be there in a couple of minutes, okay?"

_"Okay,"_ she said quietly. I threw the phone on the couch, sprinted to get my keys from the coffee table and ran to my truck as quickly as I could, not even bothering to check if anyone was watching. I didn't care about acting human under these kind of circumstances.

The drive only took three minutes, but it felt like a few hours. My fingers tapped on the wheel the whole time and I kept glancing at every street sign, even though I knew where the street I was headed was.

I slammed the door and ran to the front of the house, turning to the first people I saw. "Do you guys know where Claire Young is?" I asked him, listening out for her voice. The music blaring from the house was too loud for me to even hear the boy's reply properly, but I understood what he said fromt he shake of his head.

I sighed and pushed myself through the people in the hall, still listening out for Claire and looking around for her, too. I noticed a streak of yellowy-blond hair and walked as quickly as I could to Kelsi, putting my hand on her shoulder so she'd turn around. "Where's Claire?"

She smiled and hugged me. "With Lucas! Dance with me, Quil!"

"No, I can't, Kelsi...where's Lucas?"

She smiled and ran her hand down my chest. "I heard they went outside...ask someone out there."

I groaned and turned away from her without saying goodbye. Almost running to the front door, I got out onto the porch and looked around again, getting a wave from Dyllan, who was leaning glumly against the railing.

"Hey, Quil." he said as I made my way to him.

"Do you know where Claire is?" I asked him, looking into the garden.

He gave me a small smile. "I wish...Lucas and her walked out there, and then went somewhere. I haven't seen them for about five minutes."

"Thanks," I said, jumping over the railing and onto the ground. I ran out to the road, looking around again for a second, then snapped my head to my left as I heard a familiar scream. Claire's voice like that didn't have me hesitating for a second. I ran off toward the forest, still listening closely for her, hoping she wasn't too hurt; I'd wish for not at all, but it seemed obvious that that wasn't going to be the case.

The scream sounded again, and I was impossibly glad that it sounded so close. In a couple of seconds I could hear two people breathing, then I could make out other things. Like the sound of someone being physically restrained and another person, telling them to shut up softly.

"Claire, shhh! Someone's going to hear you." a boy's voice said through the thin trees.

I closed my eyes and leaned against it, wondering if I should go any further. I heard the sound of kissing, and considered leaving in case I was interrupting anything, but then Claire screamed again, and it wasn't a scream of anything except for bone-chilling fear, and I ran through the trees, growling none-too-softly. I wanted him to know I was morea dangerous than any other person he'd ever met.

I took the two of them in -- Lucas on top of her underneath a tall tree, tears staining her beautiful face, her jacket on the ground near her head. Lucas had scratches on his face, and there was a few spots of blood on her own, which made me growl louder.

"Get. Off. Her!" I said dangerously, making Lucas finally look up. Claire had her eyes tightly closed and was whispering something to herself as soon as she heard my voice. It was something I couldn't make out -- it didn't sound too much like English. Or Quiluete.

Lucas smirked and raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you're the famous Quil? Come back in ten minutes or something, we're busy."

I walked closer to the two of them and grabbed his neck before he could move any where. "I will gladly tear your limbs off if you don't get away from her now." I said, not surprised at how strongly he smelt of alcohol.

He swallowed and apologised hurriedly, taking in my form. I threw him to the ground as hard as I could without killing him (though I had nothing against it at that moment), and watched him as he grabbed his jacket and scrambled to his feet, running as quickly as he could while supporting the arm he had landed on. It took all of my strength not to chase after him and squewer him on one of the trees around us.

I bent down to Claire, feeling like I might start crying myself at the terrified look on her face. I brushed her hair gently back, holding her face in my hand. "Claire-bear?"

She shiverred and opened her eyes, sighing in relief when she saw me. "Quil..." she sobbed. I picked up her jacket and pulled it on her arms, trying not to notice how far her top had been pulled down. I pulled her into my arms and picked her up, trying not to touch any of the places she was bleeding from on her face. Her arms were already starting to bruise, too.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself as close to me as she could, breathing deeply. "Thank you..." she said softly, her breathing so uneven I was worried about her passing out.

"S'okay, Baby..." I walked through the trees and got to my truck, not looking at Lucas' house once. I opened my door one-handed and got into my side, still with Claire on my lap. She let go of my so I could move her to her own side of the truck, but she kept a firm grip on my upper arm, her head resting on it.

"I'm not going back to school." she said, shaking. A few drops of blood ran off her chin, into her lap. She licked the remaining blood off her lip, but it came back straight away. I started the car and sped out of the street. It only took two minutes to get home, and neither of us talked the whole way.

I carried her from my truck and up to my apartment, remembering to keep a humane pace now that I knew she wasn't in danger anymore. She was still shivering, though the heaters were turned on, when we got to my door. I unlocked it quickly and kicked it open, carrying her to her room. I pulled back the blankets and tucked her in, kissing her forehead. "What do you need, Claire-bear?"

She sniffed and wiped her eyes against her pillow, leaving black smudge marks from the makeup Sally and Kelsi had smothered her in. "Can I please have some water?"

I ran into the kitchen and brough her back a glass of water, sitting behind her and holding her, wanting her to be happy again. She drank most of the water, then sat it on the desk beside her bed, leaning into me. She rolled into my chest, her hands on my lap, and started crying silently. I wiped the tears gently from her face as they came from her eyes, kissing the top of her head and murmuring that I loved her over and over again.

An hour passed before she ran out of tears and started drifting off to sleep. I stood up so she'd be more comfortable and bent over her, wiping the tears away once more. I kissed the places on her face where the blood had clotted -- the top of her eye, her cheek bone, her jaw...I hesitated over her lip, but bent down to kiss it softly after a second. She caught me when she felt me kiss he and kissed me back slightly, just for a couple of seconds. I pulled back slowly, watching her closely. She still had her eyes closed, and she smiled the tiniest bit before rolling over and snuggling into her pillow. "Thank you, Quil." she said softly. "Goodnight. I love you."

"Love you, too, Claire-bear." I said, shakily walking to her door and turning the light off before going to my room.

I grabbed my pajama pants and had a shower in a daze.

Claire had never done anything like that before...at least not around me, anyway. And I was almost positive that she'd never kissed someone _herself _before.

Suddenly, hearing her 'I love yous' and recieving her hugs weren't the highest things that seemed they could fill me up and make me almost explode. It was as if each milestone she reached, whether she was ready for them or not, was one for me, too. As if I was changing with her, even though I knew, physically, I wasn't.

Maybe it was because she was the centre of my existence. Maybe it was because everything she did I cared about...everything she wanted I wanted, too. That was probably it. When something happened in her life and changed her, the mentality of it happened to me, as well, on some level.

I pulled on my pajama pants and crossed to my room without making any noise, checking on her at her door on my way.

She was breathing soundly, her head turned toward me with her face perfectly blank. She was so beautiful.

I smiled to myself once more before finally getting to my room, turning the lights out, and climbing into my bed, kicking off most of the blankets, even though I'd taken the time to make it with them.

***

**CPOV**

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter and rolled on my side, gasping and bouncing up when the side of my face hurt. The events from last night rushed back to me, and I collapsed back onto my pillow, sighing when I realized how much of a headache I had. If I was the only one who hadn't drunk at the party the night before, I'd hate to think what the others were feeling.

Except for Lucas. I hoped he was in so much pain he couldn't talk.

I got out of bed slowly, careful not to hurt anymore of my. My arms were sore, too, and it looked like he'd hit me pretty badly. I hadn't been concentrating on how much he'd been hitting me; just on screaming my lungs out when I had the chance.

I was kind of surprised that I wasn't crying. Then I remembered how much I had the night before, and considered the thought that I had cried everything out. My eyes were almost glued together, and my mouth tasted really gross. I just wanted to dive into a massive bath tub and scrub myself until all my skin disappeared.

I crossed to the bathroom and took a look at my face, shocked when I saw everything all over it. Then I remembered I'd been put under the torture of having every type of cosmetic under the sun smeared across my skin. My cuts probably weren't nearly as bad as they looked when that was all off.

I picked up a face wipe and started brushing it across my face gently, hardly putting any pressure on it. I didn't worry about washing around the cuts on my face. I knew from experience the wipes stung when you put them on open skin.

Running my fingers through my hair a couple of times so it didn't look like a complete rats nest, I turned toward the bathroom door.

Quil was standing in the doorway, watching me with a worried expression on his face. I blushed from remembering I'd kissed him back the night before and looked back at the bathroom cupboards.

At the time, kissing him just felt like the right thing to do. It had felt natural. Like something that should've happened, whether it was or not. I wasn't sure myself yet.

Now, I was trying to make excuses for myself, to say _why_ I had kissed him back. The best I had been able to come up with out of all of them, and it seemed practical, was because I hadn't wanted to waste my first kiss, even though it was kind of a lost cause.

There had been no way I had _wanted_ to share my first kiss with Lucas. He had forced me to. I told myself I had only kissed Quil as if to prove to myself that Lucas wasn't my first kiss. I hadn't really kissed him back -- he'd just been raping my mouth with his own. I asked myself if I had maybe kissed Quil as if I could get rid of the last hour or however long it had been (my head really was hurting, so the words passing though it didn't even make sense to myself), and kiss someone I really cared about for my first. Quil was my best friend, though. I shouldn't have even considered, which I kind of didn't...

And when I thought about it, it hadn't really been a first kiss.

Lucas' kissing was messy and involved my mouth being full of his disgusting alcohol-flavored breath and slimy tongue. It had also involved his hands roaming my body without permission.

Quil's kiss, on the other hand, had involved our lips being on each others' for only a moment, not our mouths open in the slightest, and certainly no hands.

Then why had they felt like that?! While the kiss from Lucas had been fiery, even though I'd had no intention of kissing him back, it hadn't felt like anything except his lips being against mine. Quil's, however, had felt completely different. In some way that I couldn't understand or explain...especially with my head pounding like it was.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked me, walking forward and pulling me into him as he brought me back to the present. I sighed and leaned my head against his chest, glad that the subject hadn't come up.

"I think so..." I said slowly, trying to dive deeper into my shallow thoughts to figure out exactly how I _was _feeling. Everytime I was just about to rech just under the pain of the different parts of my body it'd get too much for me, though, and I'd have to stop, my fae screwing up. "I don't know...I'm just really creeped by the whole thing. And I have no intentions of ever going back to school..."

"I don't want you going back, either." Quil said, pulling back so he could look at me. His face was serious, and a little protective. "But I think your parents are going to have something to say against that."

"Please don't tell them, Quil." I pleaded, shaking my head. "I'll get in so much trouble...especially for going to the party to start with. And then if they hear about _Lucas_," I gagged against the name, remembering his disgusting face that I didn't find attractive at all -- I don't know how I had in the least to begin with.

"I wasn't going to tell anyone, Claire-bear." Quil said, kissing the top of my head.

"Thanks," I breathed, looking down at my feet. It was odd -- I'd gotten so worried over other people finding out about the whole incident that I hadn't been thinking about talking about it to Quil. Now that I had realized I had been on that certain subject, a heavy blush filled my face.

Quil ran his fingers through my hair gently and then down my arm, twining his fingers with mine. "Did you just wanna have a quiet day at home today?"

"It's like you read my mind." I sighed, walking into the hall with him. "Umm...I'm gonna get into my pajamas. Tight jeans and a top like this aren't my ideal choice to wear."

Quil smirked. "Okay. I'll order a pizza."

I gave a small smile and turned into my room, grabbing my pajamas from the top of my bag. Once I was in my sweats and an old shirt of Quil's that hadn't fit him since he'd phased, which was a lot more comfortable, I knotted my hair on top of my head, grabbed my Quil doll and blanket and met him on the couch, where he was waiting for me with a stack of movies.

"Which one're we watching?" he asked, holding them out for me to choose from.

I glanced quickly at them all, shrugged and dropped onto the couch beside him, curling up on the cushion and nestling into his side. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him even more and played gently with my hair.

"Do you think my parents'll let me change schools?" I asked him in a whisper.

Quil sighed and took one of my hands, playing with my fingers. "I know I want you to. And that your parents will want to know _why_ you don't want to go back so badly."

"I'm not telling them." I assured him.

He didn't say anything, but got up to put a movie on. The pizza arrived about half an hour later. I ate one piece, but then didn't want to eat any more, so Quil finished it off for me. Then I fell asleep against him on the couch. When it started getting dark he took me back to my house and I fell asleep again, this time in my hammock.

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**I hope everyone's liking my story! I'll post the next chapter really soon. Sooner if I get reviews. :)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**I'm back with the seventeenth chapter! Thank yous to; ****lewislahver127, The all mighty and powerfulM, Ginaaaa, bookworm1545, , brookeyhoneybee, Asha123, Shouldna, alynawt, allisonlang and 42nd Blackbone for reviewing! You make all of this so much better!**

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**Chapter 17**

I woke up in the morning, my blanket hanging off the side of my hammock and my feet dangling over the edges. My neck was kinked from lying the wrong way, and I'd left the window open all night, so I had a lovely puddle of rain to take care of that was still seeping into my navy carpet, creating an almost-black splodge.

A queit snoring was coming from directly underneath me. It was so peaceful I was sure that if I hadn't had so much sleep over the past day, I'd have been able to fall back into my dreams with it. Instead, I rolled over and stuck my head over the side of the thick material to have a look at my best friend.

Quil had his hands folded behind his head, usuing them as a pillow. His mouth was slightly open, making him look adorably younger than he did usually, and his legs from his thighs down were hanging off the side of the matress. I immediately felt guilty for keeping two pillows to myself and grabbed my Quil doll, aiming it at his face.

He jerked up, almost whacking his head on the hammock above him as the stuffed animal hit its target. "What the _heck?!"_

"Good morning." I said, not smiling, though I did sound a little cheerier than I had since the night of the party. I was getting over it in my head, even though thinking about it made me feel sick. I had been considering talking to a councellor, even though nothing had really happened. It was still traumatising, especially since before that, the worst thing that had happened to me was my top scoop of cookies and cream ice cream falling off my cone.

He smiled and fell back onto the matress behind him. "Morning...your parents got home just after you fell asleep last night."

"That was early..." I murmured, so quietly it was as if I was saying it to myself.

He sighed and stood up, leaning over me. "So, Claire-bear, what're we doing today?"

"Nothing." I told him, ready to collapse back into the safe harbour of my hammock.

"Wrong answer. We're going to get chocolate pancakes." He said, lifting me from my bed and carrying me to the door. He dropped me, sure that I'd be able to land without being injured and opened the door for me.

My mother's cooking hit me as soon as I'd entered the hall, and I followed my nose into the kitchen, not even stopping at the bathroom to check on how bad my face was looking today. My mouth still hurt whenever I moved it, and I was sure the gouge out of my eyebrow wasn't going to get any better for a while. I could feel it as I lifted it in a test. I frowned against the pain, causing it to sting even more. _Smart one, Claire..._

We sat at the table without greeting either of my parents. My father lowered the news paper from in front of me -- I don't even think he really read it...he just wanted to fit in -- and frowned at me.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked loudly.

I looked down at the table, wishing my mother would turn from the stove and take all the spot light off me. Quil stiffened at the table next to me, and I knew he wanted to defend me, though I had made him promise not to tell them the truth. His brain was probably working at a hundred miles a minute to figure something else out to tell them.

"Did you do something to her?!" he asked Quil standing from the table slowly. Damn. He must've seen Quil's reaction. But yeah right -- how the hell did he think he was going to stand up against Quil?!

"No, he didn't." I said, shaking my head. "It was someone from school..."

"And what did the teachers have to say about it?!" my father continued, now sitting back down, his voice overtaking the loud sizzling from where my mother, who had now turned around in curiosity, was cooking. "What the _hell _do you think you're doing getting into fights like this?!"

"It wasn't a fight." I said quietly. "And the teachers haven't had anything to do with it because it wasn't at school." I closed my eyes in disappointment. Even though the party wasn't the biggest thing I wanted to keep them from finding out, it was still bad to tell them. I'd constantly been brought up to turn away from those types of things, and my parents had put it in my head enough to make me believe I hated them. I'd just gotten dragged into this one the wrong way.

"Where did you go, Claire?" my mother asked me, as if she didn't already know. Where else would the teenage school children of La Push go? Not to mention everyone in the whole town knew about one of the parties as soon as one of them was scheduled. I made a mental note to move to a bigger town when I got old enough to live by myself...or with my true love. I was determined to find him.

"Lucas Seddant's party...?" I said as if it were a question, looking up hesitantly.

My dad threw his paper down on the table and sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hands. "Should've known you'd end up like this...like every other teenage girl in this town!" he stood up again and pointed his finger at me. "We made it very clear that those types of things were _forbidden _for you, young lady!"

"Troy, just give her a break. She had a hard night." Quil said from behind me.

The whole kitchen froze. It was the first time Quil had ever actually spoken to my father, apart from greeting or farewelling him, or trying to get the old man to like him. My father's face went from disbelief to rage in a few seconds.

"Don't you_ dare _tell me how I should treat my daughter! You've been acting as if she's your own for the last twelve years, well I'll be taking resposibility from now on!" my father raged, his face taking on a redder tinge than his natural dark complexion. "She's probably been around, getting with any guy she can get to at these so called _'parties'!"_

"How dare you accuse her of something like that?!" Quil almost screamed, standing from the table in outrage. My father started yelling at him again, and my mother was still standing motionless with the spoon in her hand by the stove. I didn't know what my face was doing this whole time -- I was too caught up in what was going on around me to care about something so little.

"No," Quil spoke over my father _again_. "You don't know anything! If you shut your disgusting mouth for _one_ second to listen to what we were saying, you'd know what happened! You'd know that she _didn't_ sneak out for her own 'pleasure', and that, with the help of her friends, I almost forced her to go out! Because I wanted her to have a normal teenage life! _You _don't pay her any attention at all, and probably don't even know what her favorite color is!"

My father stopped yelling and looked at my best friend closely. I could tell that there was a bigger match of screaming and yelling and shouting about to come from him, so it surprised me when his voice was almost low. "Quil, get out of my house. You've changed my daughter in ways I thought would never happen. You're not to see her anymore."

I stood from the table and jumped to Quil, who was looking at my father with a pained expression on his face. There was a hint of doubt in his features -- like he couldn't believe what my father was saying.

He hugged me once, quickly, but tightly, then walked to the front door and opened it, slamming it behind him. I heard his truck start loudly, then pull out of our drive way.

I burst into tears at that moment, screamed something at my father, though I'm sure no one could understand it, as I couldn't myself, and ran for my room, pulling my blanket off my hammock and onto the matress below it.

I curled up with my stuffed Quil, breathing in the real Quil's scent from the matress where he had been lying less than ten minutes before.

I felt as if my walls had crashed in around me. I had always considered my life one of the bests I knew, myself. Particularly because Quil was in it. Not many people had a best friend like him.

Now that I had broken one of my parents' stricktest laws, and I was banned to see the person I loved most in the world, my life seemed like utter crap. I would've gladly handed it over to either Kelsi or Sally in those short moments, not caring that they got with a different guy each month, or spent a heap of their pocket money buying pregnancy tests and crying from the drama of it all, even though we all knew neither of them were pregnant. They were probably just pretending they'd lost their virginity. They'd done other crazy things in the past to get people's attention.

But then I corrected myself, wondering how I had been so stupid, even though the ideas were fresh in my mind.

I was definitely going to see Quil again -- I knew that for sure. My father couldn't keep me away from my best friend. He had no right to, especially since Quil did nothing wrong. He hadn't literally _pushed_ me out the door. I had the choice to go or not, and I chose to. That was my own fault.

Yeah, I had no idea how I was going to see my friend again, but I knew I was going to. In a town this small, I would have had to even if we weren't hanging around together.

There were plans forming in my head after two minutes, though I knew none of them were rational, then I finally settled for reading an old book, ignoring my parent's calls and knocks on my door to me.

**QPOV**

_"Are you_ serious_?!" _Embry asked me, bewildered.

I sighed mentally and rested my big head against my paws in a clearing.

It was my turn taking partol, so it was just me and Embry, who was still scouring England, and he was one of the two people that I really could talk to. The other was Jacob, who I knew wasn't about to phase to talk to Embry. He had talked to him more than I had already, and he didn't know about what had happened between me and Claire's father. If he did, he'd probably be sitting right next to me now, trying to comfort me with meaningless words.

_"I'm going back to see her."_ I told him.

He snorted. _"Yeah, that was obvious. I know you can't stay away from her."_

_"It's not just that."_ I defended myself. _"It's because I know she's alone at the moment, and she really needs someone to talk to." _of course what I had been trying to keep a secret had spilled out the minute I had phased -- I was still too angry to stop thinking about it, and the constant _you didn't hurt the bastard enough_ was to make anyone insane.

I once again got lost in my fantasies of the torturous methods I could do to the disgusting Lucas Seddant, much worse than any kid pulling the wings off flies.

_"Whoa, stop there." _Embry whined, imagining the pain from the last thing that had crossed my mind.

_"Sorry..."_ I murmured guiltily.

Jacob, finally, popped into our heads at that moment. _"Well hello there!" _he said cheerily, pausing as the flood of emotions pouring out of me hit him. _"Oh...wow."_

_"Tell me about it..." _Embry muttered mentally.

_"Quil, I'm sorry man."_ Jacob apologised without any need. _"I can't even imagine being banned from seeing Nessie."_

_"It won't be for long. I'll end up kidnapping her within a week." _I admitted, only half joking.

_"Don't do anything stupid." _Jacob warned me. _"You know how aggravating Troy Young can be, and you also know how close you came to phasing in his kitchen today. If he'd pushed you just a little further..."_

_"I know. I'll concentrate...not that I'll be speaking to him ever again if I get any say in it."_ I said sourly.

Embry snickered. _"Oh, I think there'll be a few conversations in the future to come..." _and he went off, thinking about them all to himself, even though Jacob and I could hear them perfectly clear.

_"Oh, speaking of which, Jake..."_ Embry began slyly. _"How's dear little Nessie going? Quickly demoloshing her innocence?"_

_"Shut up." _Jacob threatened playfully. _"You know I wouldn't do anything like that..."_

_"Because of Edward?"_

_"Mm-hm."_

I barked a laugh. Jacob's seriousness went as far to keep his Imprint and himself safe...no matter how much both of them wanted more than they could have already.

The three of us talked for a couple of hours, just like old times, before the whole wolf thing had taken over our lives and we'd been three normal guys, hanging out at First Beach or in Jake's messy garage where no one could find us every afternoon. The only thing different with our talks were what we talked about. Imprinting was now the centre of everything we said, which made Embry feel strangely distant (not just because he was in another country), and the joking around wasn't hovering over us this afternoon, though I knew that was just because of me. Jacob and Embry might not have wanted to be sulking with me, but they weren't about to try and make me feel happy. They knew it was an impossibility with what had happened.

When my shift was over and Jacob wanted to go to see Nessie, -- at his own apartment, of course -- we both phased, leaving Embry to talk to Seth before he finally decided to go to bed. He'd told us earlier that he hadn't slept in two days, instead travelling around the area he was, looking at every girl he could find.

I literally walked to my apartment, which was something I'd never actually done. When I finally got back, I changed into my pajamas and went to bed straight away.

It took me two hours to decide that I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I sighed and climbed out of bed, running to Claire's house on my human feet.

I watched from a distance in the forest, straight into her bedroom window. The light was off, and I couldn't hear any movement from within it. I phased into a wolf after a few minutes, checking whether or not I could hear anything from within the room, as my senses as a wolf were so much stronger than my human ones.

I could hear her light breathing, changing into adorable snoring from time to time. At least she wasn't as upset as I was. I sat there all night, changing back to human as the sun started rising, then bolted home when I'd realized I was going to be late for work. I was only ten minutes late, but I didn't think Lisa would've been angry at me even if I hadn't shown up. There'd been no customers in the store all morning, and she was on the phone to Leon, who was getting deeper into this relationship than any he'd ever been in before.

"What's wrong, Quil?" she asked as she hung up the store's phone, noticing how depressed I must've looked.

I sighed heavily. "Just the core of my existence...I'm not allowed to see Claire anymore."

"Aww..." she whined for my approvement. She seated herself on the bench and put her feet in my lap. "What happened?"

"She went to a party, got into trouble off her parents, and I was banished from ever seeing her again."

"Are you going to see her again?" she fired back.

"Yep." I said.

The phone rang. Lisa sighed and leant over to answer it. "Stupid thing was ringing the whole time I was talking to Leon, as well."

I chuckled under my breath, though I really wasn't finding anything funny at that moment, and went off to put out some of the boxed CDs from the back store room onto the right places on the shelves.

After work, I phased and ran to Claire's house again, watching her window, listening to her quiet breathing. She must've been sleeping again. I wondered how she was sleeping so much; that was almost all she'd been doing the last couple of days.

**CPOV**

I woke up at eleven and sighed when I checked the clock. I'd been hoping to sleep the day through. Without my best friend keeping me company my days were sure to be long and boring. And cold.

I shivvered and pulled on my dressing gown and slippers, trudging into the kitchen to get a supply of food for the night.

I'd decided to banish myself to my room for a while. Not only would it make me feel miserable and bored enough to start skinning myself, but it'd make my parents feel bad, as well. And then my father might actually say Quil could come back.

I raided the cupboard, pulling out a couple of packets of chips, a block of chocolate, two bottles of Ice Magic, oreos and a packet of cookies. I took the whole container of ice cream from the fridge and grabbed a spoon, dropping all of this back in my room before coming back to take a cup and a whole bottle of soda.

Well, if I didn't get Quil back soon enough, I'd have a few extra pounds to keep me warmer.

I ate one back of chips, the chocolate and all of the ice cream within three hours. Then I stared out the window for a while. Then I read. Then I did jumping jacks in the corner of my room to try to tire myself out a little bit. I wanted to sleep through the next few days. When I was out of breath, I collapsed on my floor and sung quietly to myself. Then I did sit-ups. After that, I started cutting up some of my old clothes that I hadn't had the chance to throw out yet...don't ask me why, boredom does some crazy things to people.

In between watching Dr. Phil on the television in the corner of my room, reading an old book I had gotten of my great aunt and hoping my parents wouldn't notice our food was going missing, I fell asleep. The nap lasted for a whole hour. Whoop whoop...

My day was complete with crying to a sappy movie that I would've rated one star, myself. And I wasn't crying because the neighbor ended up dying. It was because the movie was so crap and I'd spent an hour and a half of my pathetic life watching it.

When I heard my parents get home, I hid all the stolen food under the matress, pressed up against the wall and dove under the blanket in my hammock, rolling over so I was facing the window. Thank God the sun had finally set. Today had been the longest of my life, and I was surprisingly tired from it.

My door opened almost as soon as my parents entered the house. I pretended to be asleep until it shut again, but then I really closed my eyes and tried to get to sleep. There was no point in staying up, anyway.

It took two hours to get to sleep. As soon as I had started trying I realized I actually wasn't that tired after all. While I was watching the rain, listening to my parents argue from the other side of the house and thinking about little, unimportant things, my dreams finally overcome me, and I was able to escape the fact of reality.

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**Pleeeeeease Review! It would make me so happy! I'll post when I have ten of them. Maybe before. Who knows? I don't! We'll just have to wait and see!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Whoooaa, whoooaa, it's an update from Chlooow, Chlooow!**

**Helloooo, little peanuts. This is the eighteenth chapter. A ****BIG**** thank you to the gorgeous; ****lewislahver127, Razor456, Shouldna, The all mighty and powerfulM, 42nd Blackbone, bookworm1545, Alyra90, , Ginaaaa, twi-nighter, SwiftDestiny, Asha123, Lolie lover xx, asta123pasta, leydyan22 and AmoreVietato-ForbiddenLove for reviewing since I posted the last chapter!**

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**Chapter 18**

Heavy rain pelting against the metal of the garage roof outside my window woke me the next morning. I stretched, sighing and glanced at my clock. It was almost twelve. Ah well, at least it wasn't early morning.

I jumped out of my hammock, slid my slippers on and grabbed my dressing gown, not bothering to do it up as I left my room, my destination being the bathroom. I figured I could do with a shower.

I was looking at the bows on my slippers and didn't get two steps out of the room before I ran into something hard that was in my way. I was unsteady, before Quil caught me and held me, grinning.

"Sorry, Claire-bear." he said, releasing me and taking a step back, as if it were too much for him to be within a foot close to me. He looked away awkwardly, folding his arms.

I realized what I was wearing and quickly moved back into my room. I'd been cold just wearing one of Quil's old T-shirts, my underwear and my dressing gown after I'd gotten out from under my blankets, but I hadn't minded, as I was about to get in a shower. I pulled on a pair of old sweat pants, kicked my feet back into my slippers and opened my door again.

"Sorry..." I murmured. "Uhh...you're not allowed to be here."

Quil raised his eyebrows. "I can go..."

"No!" I said loudly. "I've missed you _so_ much! I've hardly been out of my room for the last two days...why aren't you at work?"

He hesitated, looking slightly embarrassed, then smiled sheepishly. "I called in sick...I wanted to come and visit you instead."

"Aw, you left Lisa all alone to be with me?" I asked happily.

He nodded. "It's not like she'll be alone for the whole day...I'm sure Leon'll visit her soon enough."

"Are those two going out now?" I asked him in disbelief. I didn't really know Leon, but he didn't seem like the kind of person who would ever actually get a girlfriend.

Quil shrugged. "They spend all of their days on the phone together, then they see each other pretty much every night. But Leon still chats up girls at parties and stuff."

"Big surprise..." I murmured. "Thanks for coming to visit me, Quil."

He smiled sadly and shook his head. "Can't keep me away for too long."

I giggled and pushed past him, stopping in the bathroom doorway. "Uhh...I need a shower. I'll be out soon."

"I'll be in your room." he told me as I closed the door.

I rushed through my shower, wishing I had woken up a little earlier so I could've been done with it before he showed up. When I was finally finished, I shut off the water, dried myself with my towel as quickly as I could, threw on my pajamas, kicking myself for forgetting to bring some more in, and walked back into my room, still towel-drying my hair.

"That would have to be the quickest shower you've ever had." Quil joked, flicking though my photo album. I rolled my eyes and sat up in my hammock with him, looking down at the album, too.

Most of the pictures that had been taken of the two of us while I was growing up had been put into this overly-thick book. I'd always loved taking photos and filling up my album, so there was something from almost every occasion in it. My favorite photos were up on my wall, creating a massive collage with some other things that brought back memories of the two of us being together.

"Aha," Quil laughed at one of the pictures from one of his birthday parties.

The small rectangle was taken up by the whole gang, all of us smiling widely at the camera or screaming at it or posing, except for a dark blob in the corner, behind everyone else. A closer look at it, and one could identify the blob as Jared and Kim, wrapped around each other with their mouths meshed together. That was where Quil was pointing in amusement.

He sighed and turned the page. I looked up at him slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said in a voice that told me there was seriously nothing wrong. With him looking down at the paper like that, on the other hand, I could tell he was lying.

"I beg to differ..." I murmured quietly.

He snorted and turned another page, to where there was a whole two pages of my twelf birthday party, Nessie and Jacob standing together in every one of them.

Something in my head clicked, and I looked down, not wanting to say anything. Quil must've wanted to Imprint.

"Quil..." I started hesitantly.

"Yeah, Claire-bear?" he asked me, turning the page and smiling at the pictures on the other side.

I sighed and looked up at him seriously. "Are you going to leave if...if you Imprint?"

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and shook his head. "I already promised you I wasn't going to leave you."

"But you won't really have a choice!" I protested, trying to remember when he's promised such a thing. It must have been a long time ago.

He closed the photo album and took both of my hands in his own massive ones, looking deeply into my eyes. "Claire, I _promise,_ I will not be leaving you." he said earnestly. "My Imprint isn't going to pull me away from you. If I have one, I mean..."

I smiled, and looked down. I really needed to try and stop being so emotional. Just thinking about Quil leaving me had hurt so much it had made me start to cry.

But that might've been because I'd just gone more than a full day without seeing him. And that had been painful enough. If some other girl were to come in between me and my best friend, I'd probably try to make her life a living hell as much as I could. Quil wasn't going to be able to escape me easily, even if he was trying.

"Thanks, Quil." I said softly.

We sat in silence for a minute, then Quil moved forward, hanging over the side of my hammock and grabbed something. He pulled it back up and sat it on the material in between us. "Uhh...why do you have a mountain of junk food stashed in your room?"

I grinned sheepishly. "I was hiding out in here. I didn't want to go out and see my parents at all, so I stocked up yesterday when they weren't home.

"Sneaky..." he said sarcastically.

I grabbed my pillow and threw it at his face, giggling and trying to escape my hammock as he caught it and lined it up to throw it back at me.

The rest of our day was dedicated to sitting around my room, watching crappy television shows, eating Ice Magic straight out of the bottle, joking about things the other had found embarassing or stupid, and freaking out when it got close to the time my parents were due back from their jobs.

"Quick, go!" I giggled, running to the door and holding it open for him. "And you _have_ to come and visit me the next time you've got the day off work and my parents aren't home, okay?"

"Okay," he chuckled, standing from my matress and walking to the door. "See you soon," he said, kissing the corner of my eye.

I hugged him quickly, then literally pushed him out of my door, though I knew it had no effect on him.

**QPOV**I ran from Claire's house, into the forest bordering her backyard. Stopping just as the trees were about to swallow me up, I turned and watched the her shadow moving through the thin curtain. She picked something up from her coffee table and flopped back into her hammock, opening it.

It was a book. I watched her for a few minutes until her parents' car pulled into their driveway, then I sighed, took my sweat pants off and phased, not at all feeling guilty for being over half an hour late for patrol.

_"Where've you been?" _Leon asked, annoyed. _"Oh...congratulations."_

_"Thanks,"_ I said, smiling mentally.

Jacob cleared his throat to let me know he was there, as if the impatience to go and see Nessie wasn't enough. _"That's great that you've seen Claire and all, but you'd better try and keep it a secret from everyone you can. I know her father's not very social or anything, but it'd be better for her sake if no one else knew about it."_

I nodded in my head, letting him know I agreed. I couldn't imagine the trouble Claire'd be in if her father found out I'd been spending the day with her. It was enough she wasn't talking to her parents; I knew they'd be getting pretty pissed off with that.

Patrol was slow. Even though I knew I wasn't going to see Claire again that night, I was still to happy to just do my usual business, sniffing at the ground and trying to make interesting conversation with Leon.

It was even harder to talk to him tonight. Especially because I didn't want to get too far into his mind with what was still fresh there. He'd shown up at the CD shop this afternoon, surprising Lisa, who had put the closed sign up on the door and then they'd...

Well, let's just say I won't be going into the back room of the store for a while.

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**Ah, it's so short, I know! I'm sorry! I'll put up the next chapter really, really soon, though, so it'll be okay.**

_**Please **_**review! It'll make me even faster at updating the next chapter! (that's really fast!)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**The nineteenth chapter's going up already! Part of the reason because the last chapter was so short. Sorry about that!**

**Thanks to; ****alynawt, SwiftDestiny, lewislahver127, Fuzzyfurr, asta123pasta, suzmac33, 90sgurl, bookworm1545, The all mighty and powerfulM, Ginaaaa, spannieren and twi-nighter ****for reviewing since I posted the last chapter yesterday. I'm so happy to have people as nice as you reading my story!**

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**Chapter 19**

**CPOV**

It was odd in the morning, being woken up by my mother in stead of my own will.

I groaned and sat up, glaring darkly at her once I had remembered I was beyond angry with her, even though she hadn't really had anything to do with the whole thing. "What?"

She gave me a look that told me not to give her attitude. "When're you going back to school?"

"I'm not." I said uncomfortably, dropping back into my blankets and pillows.

She walked over and pulled the blanket back from my face. "You have to, Claire. I'm not going to make you go today, no matter what your father tells me, but you will be going back before too long."

I sighed into my pillow and rolled over. "Can't I just start at a new school?"

She narrowed her eyes. "What happened at that party?" Oh, right. Like she didn't already have her suspiscions.

"Nothing." I said, looking away from her, out my window. See? I'd always been good at covering things up...

She stood up straight and looked at me sadly. "Claire, I don't like it how you can't tell me things. I'm your mother, the person you're supposed to tell things to."

"I already have one of those people." I said quietly, not thinking how hurt it would make her feel until it had come out of my mouth..

She shook her head to herself. "Quil hasn't been around lately. You haven't talked to anyone for a few days now...what's wrong?"

"I want my best friend back." I snapped, rolling over and sitting up. "You tell Dad that if he doesn't let Quil come back I'll never talk to him again!"

She frowned and walked to the door. "I've told him to get real, but I'll pass along the message."

"Thanks." I said sarcastically, lying down again.

She nodded once and walked out of my room, leaving me with no one to yell at except for myself. I did feel really bad, though. She was obviously pissed off at me more than she'd ever been before. She hadn't even said 'I love you'.

It was about two minutes before my father decided to visit me.

"What the hell did you want?" he asked me.

I gave him the filthiest look I could manage. "I want you to say Quil can come back."

"He let you go to one of those parties!" my father protested. "Do you really think I'm going to let someone like him back into my house?!"

"My friends from school were the real culprits! Ban them from the house!"

He shook his head. "Claire, wake up to yourself. You know I'm right in all of this. Now get back to being a hermit and never ask me a question this stupid again."

An idea occured to me. Well, if that was what it was going to take...

"Fine. I hope work's horrible for you and you have to stay in late."

"I always do..." he sighed, slamming my door behind him as he left.

I waited until I heard their car pull out of the drive way, then I checked the house, just incase one of them had decided to stay home from work. Both of them were gone.

I ran back into my bedroom, grabbed my phone off the little table on the side and dialed Quil's number, pushing it up against my ear.

_"Are you okay?"_ he answered.

"Fine..." I muttered sourly. "But I'm thinking about changing my name and never speaking to my father again. Um...Quil? What time do you finish work today?"

_"I can get out now if you want?" _he asked slowly. At least someone knew me well enough to see where I was going with things before I got to the point.

"No," I assured him. "No, I was just wondering if you'd come and get me when you've finished. Um...can I live with you for a while?"

_"Sure,"_ he said straight away. _"What caused all this since yesterday?"_

"I talked to my father. He said he wasn't going to let you come under our roof ever again, so as long as I'm not under it, too, I don't think it'll matter."

He chuckled. _"Okay, Claire-bear. Pack your bags and I'll pick you up around four, okay?"_

"Thanks, Quil." I said, hanging up the phone.

He was so brilliant! He didn't even say anything about how much trouble I was getting him in for kidnapping or whatever it was. I didn't pay that much attention to many things.

I opened my closet and jumped up, grabbing my suitcase by the handle and pulling it out off the top shelf. I ducked out of the way before it could fall on me, then ran back once it was safetly on the ground. I flipped the top open and started grabbing all of my favorite clothes from my closet, throwing them carelessly into my bag. Then I packed all of my toiletries and my simple makeup. After packing a couple of my favorite books and other things to do, I zipped up my bag and kicked it just in front of my door.

That gave me seven hours to wait until Quil got here.

For a while I watched _Oprah_ re-runs, then I switched to _America's Next Top Model_. My favorite contestant went home, obviously. That was always what happened when I watched it.

When that was over, I sat on the living room floor for a few minutes before I went into the bathroom and got out my big makeup kit, collecting all of the brightest colors I owned.

I put my makeup on as perfect as I could, just like I had seen in the photos on the show a moment before. This was something I usually did when bored. It took me longer than it would've if I wore as much makeup. I couldn't even get the eyes to match.

I washed it all off after posing for about ten minutes in front of the mirror, then I went back to my room and sat on the matress under my hammock. I ate the rest of the junk food I'd hidden in there, then I tried to get up, ignoring how painful it was to move because my stomach was so full.

"Hmmm..." I looked around my room, checked my clock, sighed when I realized I still had two hours left, then I walked into the kitchen. "Oops," I mumbled as I knocked a stach of old news papers off the bench. They fell onto the floor boards, spreading across them messily.

I smirked and walked to the fridge and opened it up, looking for something I could use that would work for what I wanted.

"Bingo," I sung to myself, lifting a tray of some kind of desert my mother was trying to create and finding lobster shells from the dinner my parent's must've had a couple of nights before on a plate underneath it.

I carried the tray of shells to their room and climbed into their wardrobe, seating myself in the very top. I dug my nails into the sides of the vent on the inside of the cupboard and pulled the front of it off, stuffing a few of the lobster shells into the narrow space. Satisfied, I smiled and pressed the vent cover back onto its place, bashing it so it would be harder to take it off.

I jumped from the top of the wardrobe and hit the carpet, my ankles stinging a little from the impact. Then I put the remaining shells back in the fridge so they wouldn't notice and get suspicious, walked back into my room and watched the television until Quil was due.

He showed up at three thirty. I skipped to the front door and opened it just as he was about to knock.

"You're early," I smiled up at him.

He walked through the door and pulled me into a tight hug. "Missed you."

"Missed you more." I giggled, kissing his cheek.

"Yeah..." he said sarcastically. He looked down and reached for my suitcase. "Have you got everything you want?"

I nodded. "Yeah, and I left a little present in my parents' room; they don't know I'm leaving yet."

He grinned. "What was it?"

"A couple of lobster shells...I put the other ones back in the fridge so they wouldn't know something was up. That's until their room starts smelling real bad." I said mischeviously.

Quil shook his head, smiling. "I'm so proud of you."

He picked up my suitcase and opened the door, motioning me out before him. I skipped out happily, waited for him to get in front of me and lunged for his back, locking my feet in front of his chest. He chuckled and walked quickly to his truck, chucking my suitcase in the back and opening my door for me.

"You don't mind this, do you, Quil?" I asked him after a few moments of silence.

He snorted. "Hardly. This can only be better than living by myself."

"How long do you think it'll be before they come to your house looking for me?"

"As soon as they notice. It'll be the first place they look." he said, already turning onto his street.

I bit my lip. "And what happens then?"

"I don't know. We'll do what we always do; what ever we decide on the spot."

I laughed as he pulled up out the front of his apartment and jumped out before he had the chance to help like he usually did. He did grab my bag, though. We made our way to his apartment slowly, saying hey to anyone who walked past us.

"Okay, so what're we doing first?" he sighed, throwing my bag on his couch.

I sighed and looked around his room. "Mmmm...I dunno..."

"We can go out for dinner?" he suggested.

"Ah kay," I smiled. "But maybe...closer to dinner time."

"Yeah," he chuckled. "What haven't we done in ages?"

**QPOV**

"Aha, wrong amount, Quil!" Claire teased, motioning to the board with both of her index finger and her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. "Two little green houses! Cough up." she held out her hand, her fingers, silently asking me for more money.

I sighed and picked up my bundle of paper money, handing her the rest of what I owed her. "I don't know how you do this...you always find some way to win."

"Just shows I'm gonna be rich in later life," she joked lightly.

I snorted and rolled the dice. "Double four..."

"You're in prison!" she exclaimed gleefully, moving the little metal dog that was supposed to be me to the bottom corner of the game board. "And I get...eight. And two hundred dollars for passing Go...oh Mr. Banker?!"

I gave her a playful death glare and handed her her money, rolling and growling in frustration when I didn't get another doule.

"Ah, I'm sick of Monopoly..." she murmured.

"Thank God."

"We'll finish when we get home. It'll probably only take another twenty minutes until I have the rest of your money, anyway. Let's get something to eat." she said, standing from her place on my carpet.

"What do you feel like?" I asked her, grabbing a handful of notes from the jar on my counter and stuffing them into my jeans pocket.

She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment, then ran into her room. "The Thai restaraunt just going into Forks. I'm buying tonight."

"No, I got paid--"

"Mm-mm-mmm!" she said, her lips pressed together as she shook her head. "Shut and let's go."

She gave me directions as I drove through the light rain that had just started. It didn't take long to get to the restaraunt, but it felt longer than it was because we were both looking out for Claire's parents' car the whole time.

"They'll probably show up at midnight and order me to come home." Claire said, her face casual but her voice grim.

"I'll just tell them you're living with me for a while."

She snorted. "Oh yeah, my dad's totally going to accept that. He'll probably lock me up under the house before he lets me out of his sight again."

I sighed and opened my door, running around to the other side of the car so I could get hers for her. I really didn't like thinking of her in trouble, but I didn't want to take her back to her own house while she was so lonely. Her parents needed a good lesson, and one of the best I could think of was this. Maybe they'd treat her as well as she deserved if they'd lost her for a while. "So why's this place so special?"

"You'll see when we get in there." she said, smiling slightly.

She led the way, sat down at a table and tapped her nails on the small table. "Oh, where could the waitress be?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and laughed when I saw who was making their way to our table with a menu.

"Why haven't you been at school?" Kelsi asked, raising an eyebrow as she handed Claire a menu.

"Troubles." Claire said softly, scanning the page.

"Hey, Kelce." I said, taking the menu from her outstretched hand.

"Hiya Quil...Lucas said he got some. I'm guessing it was before he broke his arm, though...it would've been kinda hard to do things with something like that." she said, turning back to Claire.

I growled as quietly as I could, unable to stop myself. Kelsi frowned at me, but Claire cleared her throat, as if she were trying to disguise the sound. "No, he didn't get _anything_."

"Well, he said you dragged him into the forest and begged him." she insisted.

"If you consider pleasing teenage girls rape." Claire said sarcastically.

Kelsi gasped and pulled out the chair in between us, moving it a little closer to Claire and rested her chin in her hand. "Start from the beginning."

"There isn't really much..."

"What happened? Did you tell the cops? Oh, I'm going to kick that hot jerk's ass!"

"Nothing really happened...Quil found us and kicked his ass for you before anything could get serious."

"Is that why your face's looking...bad?" Kelsi said, stopping herself before she could say something else. I glanced at Claire. She didn't look bad at all. She looked beautiful, despite the healing cuts and bruises on her face.

Claire put her fingers to her lip. "Yeah, they're healing, so they were worse. I didn't even get the chance to throw back some punches."

"You don't know how to." Kelsi said, jumping as a hand touched her shoulder. "Ooh, sorry." she said, standing and pushing the chair back in. The middle-aged Thai woman who must've been Kelsi's boss nodded once and walked back, behind the door at the edge of the counter.

"So what'll y'all be havin' this evenin'?" Kelsi asked us, putting one hand on her hip and looking questioningly at us.

We ordered what we were having and Kelsi nodded, took the menus away and skipped behind the counter, ignoring the man who asked her for another drink.

"Why's Kelsi...working here? Her family has heaps of money, and I know for a fact she gets a fair bit of money each month." I asked in confusion, remembering Kelsi's weekly shopping trip with Sally and sometimes Claire. Claire had told her on numerous occasions she should meet Alice, though she'd never gotten around to actually introducing them to each other.

Claire grinned. "She likes a guy who works here. She's been after him for a few months, and she found out he works here, so she applied for a job. He goes to Forks High or something..."

"He's older than her?"

"He's seventeen. She's fifteen." Claire said, sitting back as a boy brought us our drinks. He gave her a small smile and walked back behind the countes. _That's him,_ she mouthed, pointing after him.

I chuckled. Kelsi'd probably gone to all the trouble of getting her working times the same as his. I wouldn't be surprised if she was clinging to his arm as they worked most of the time. She became attatched to whoever she wanted, then forgot about them after a couple of months of dating them.

"I'm turning fifteen in three days..." Claire said, taking a sip of her Coke.

"I know. And you still haven't given me any hints of what you want."

"To be away from my family." she said, rolling her eyes. "You've already given me that."

"What else?" I pressed.

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"I'll take you out for dinner, then." I told her.

"Then I'm paying _and_ tipping tonight."

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**Okay, so another reason I posted this chapter so soon was because I have to go to my father's house this weekend. Which means that I won't have access to the internet or anything else nearly as fun as it. So it would be really, really, really, really awesome if I had a heap of reviews when I got back! It would make my weekend so much better! You know you want to! For me?!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Hey! Sorry about not posting on Monday, but I had a good excuse...I just can't remember what it was. Sorry... Yeah, so I was going to post yesterday, but then my internet wasn't working and I yelled and swore at the thing, (which gave my mother a good laugh) and then I went to bed early. Turns out the electrical cord had fallen out...**

**Thank you to; ****SwiftDestiny, lewislahver127, alynawt, Fuzzyfurr, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, spannieren, Shouldna, twi-nighter, Ana Ferg, Angelic-Story, Asha123, Gabriela Tortolano for reviewing last chapter. You guys know how happy you make me! :)**

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**Chapter 20**

**CPOV**

"What're we going to see?" I asked Quil, knotting my arms around his neck to prevent from sliding off his shoulders. It was so much easier sitting on his shoulders now that my legs were longer.

"That new action/comdey that just came out." he told me, opening the passenger's door of his truck and turning his back to it so I could climb in easily.

It had been five months since I'd run away to live with Quil; my parents had dragged me back after two days, and I'd been forced to return back to school straight away. My mother had said that they hadn't known I was gone the whole first, and only then had they found out because she had gone in to ask if I wanted something to eat and I hadn't been there. I had been perfectly content, living off Chicken Deluxe Burgers from McDonald's at Quil's house the whole time.

My father had a few more words to say about my disappearance than my mother, though. I didn't mind, however, because their room still had a very off smell to it. I'd checked a fortnight before, and I was pleased and disgusted to see the rotting crustation shells still tucked away in the top corner of their room. I'd just had a hard time trying to keep from breathing while in there and cracking up laughing when they questioned me about it.

"How long's it gonna be before this car explodes?" I asked as we got further away from my house. The truck was making a loud rattling sound that had only just shown up in the past few months. It was getting louder still, and everytime I got in nowadays I worried about being blown away as the bomb went up in flames with the typical bang.

Quil lowered the window down, putting more pressure onto the handle than he should have needed to. "I think it's passed it's expiration date...I really need to get some more money for a new car."

"Ever considered getting a proper full-time job?"

He shook his head. "Not enough time. I have patrol almost half the nights of the week, then I spend all that other time with you."

"And my father's ecstatic about that." I said sarcastically. Quil snorted, not diving into that suject.

By the time we got to the movie cinema it was almost dark. We walked into the building quickly because I was getting cold and bouth the tickets with only a couple of minutes to spare. Quil got a large bucket of popcorn and met me up in one of the back rows of chairs.

"Port Angeles is even colder that La Push." I complained, unable to feel my feet.

Quil chuckled and took my hand in his warm one, wrapping his other arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him hesitantly, wondering if I felt weird because of something I'd eaten.

I realized, with a jolt, that it was because I was so close to Quil. I scolded myself silently. He was my best friend, nothing more. And if I was being completely honest, he'd never think of me like that. It was wrong to have feelings like that toward him.

I shook my head slightly, trying to concentrate on the big screen in front of me, though the ads didn't really capture my attention as much as all the other times I'd come here. Quil laughed at something I wasn't watching, and I smiled too, unable to help myself. Quil's laugh was always infectious for me, and I loved the sound. I sighed and sat deeper in my seat, ignoring the glance I got for him.

"You okay?" he asked me in a whisper.

I nodded, still looking at the screen but not seeing the pictures.

After five long minutes of not talking the movie started. I quickly forgot about what I had been thinking and got caught up in the drama of the story. Not only the story, but the main guy who was in the thick of it all. He would only be a couple years older than me, and had golden blond hair, lightly tanned skin and deep blue eyes. And of course he was extremely attractive -- I couldn't think of any movies where the main guy was hideous.

The movie went for longer than I thought it would. There was a lot of fighting that quickly became boring, and I don't know how it was classified a comedy, because I only laughed a couple of times.

In the end, the bag guys, surprisingly, were defeated, and the main guy ended up with the hot girl in the tight leather pants and skimpy top. The credits started zooming across the screen and the dim lights came on, the room becoming a lot brighter.

I sat up in my seat and stretched, pointing my toes in front of me. Quil stood from his chair and raised his arms across his head, yawning. "I wouldn't give it the reviews it's been getting." he muttered, holding out his hand for me to take.

My stomach clenched as I took his hand and let him help me from my seat. _You freak! You're lucky he's not Edward and can't hear what you're thinking, or else he'd be outta here in no time!_

I sighed and followed him out of the cinema and into the freezing air. "What're we having for dinner?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "Whatever's closest. It's getting even colder."

He handed me his jacket, which was warm on the inside from the short moments he'd been wearing it from leaving the cinema, took my hand and pulled me through the streets, both of us ignoring the looks passers-by gave Quil, mostly for his height. Maybe a little considering he was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and everyone else outiside within one hundred miles was rugged up, most including wool-lined boots.

We ordered our meals at a small restaraunt and seated ourselves at a tiny round table. "I'm so hungry." Quil said, looking toward the kitchen door even though there would be a wait around twenty minutes until we got our food.

"You just ate a whole bucket of popcorn!" I said in disbelief.

"I'm a growing boy." Quil joked.

I rolled my eyes. "We'd better hope you're not, or you're going to end up eight foot."

"So did you like the movie?" he asked casually, picking at the side of the table.

I shrugged. "It was okay. The best thing about it was the main guy..."

"What about him?" Quil asked quickly, narrowing his eyes.

"He was good looking." I said simply, shrugging slightly.

Quil raised an eyebrow. "Since when've you been taking an interest to guys?"

I swallowed and stared down at the table. I'd only really been taking an interest to one of them. "It's not really an interest, Quil. Relax."

Quil looked at me for a moment, then thanked the waitor who brought us our drinks. He drank almost all of his Coke in one go, pushing mine on the table so it was right in front of me. "You've been acting different all night." he observed. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head at him. "I'm fine." I insisted.

He smiled slightly and went back to watching for his food to come.

This night was quickly becoming one of the most awkward we'd ever had, and there was really no real reason for it to be.

***

**QPOV**

Claire ate her food without really talking. I was worried I'd made her upset when I'd gotten pissed over her talking about the actor from the movie. She hadn't said anything bad, after all. I was just over protective of her and didn't want anything more involving guys to happen to her. Yet.

When we had both finished eating I had to drive her straight home. It was her mother's day off -- she had one day off a week, and she had been at Sam and Emily's house all day. I'd been with Claire while she wasn't home, but she said she wanted to see her daughter for a while before her husband got home.

"Whoa, someone had an accident!" Claire said excitedly as we drove down the highway, taking in all the lined up cars. There were police motioning for people to start taking the other roads further up. I didn't blame her for her curiosity. Things like this happened rarely in a tiny town with a population of less than four hundred people. Rather than get stuck in the traffic jam like the rest of the people, I turned the car around illegally and sped off.

"Your mother's going to kill me if I get you home any later than I said." I moaned, glancing at the clock in the front of my car.

We were over ten minutes late -- something that I could've helped if the highway hadn't been blocked. I opened Claire's door for her, swearing tamely as the new rain pelted down at us. I pulled her from my truck and ran inside, to quick for a human. It wouldn't matter, though. Claire's house wasn't exactly close to her neighbor's and it was too dark for them to see, anyway.

"Mom?" Claire asked, jumping down from my arms and sliding the side door open. "We're home!"

Marylyn came into the living room slowly from the kitchen, tear tracks running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" Claire asked her, both of us immediately moving forward.

Marylyn pulled her into a tight hug, sniffing into her shoulder. Claire'd been taller tan her mother for while now, but she always managed to look smaller. "Your father's...been in an accident." she said between sobs. Claire stiffened and turned her head slowly sideways so she could see me.

"Uh...Marylyn, this wouldn't be the car accident just up the highway, would it?" I asked hesitantly.

She nodded. "They don't know how good he is yet...the police don't want anyone near the scene. I just got a call from Sam. Emily's pretty upset about it." she said, so quietly Claire wouldn't have been able to hear her if they weren't standing together.

"He'll be okay." Claire said hopefully, pulling away from her mother.

Marylyn nodded a couple of times, not looking at either of us and walked back into the kitchen, staring at the phone on the table.

"Oh my God..." Claire breathed, starting in the direction of her room.

I took her hand and walked with her. "I should go see Emily...are you staying here?" Claire'd be okay. She'd never enjoyed the company of her father, or even talked about him. I knew it had something to do with the fact that he'd hardly had any time to spend with her. But Emily...she'd grown up with him. If she'd been as close to her older brother as my younger sister had been with me before I phased (and kind of deserted her, my mother and my father as my Imprint took place), then she'd be pretty upset.

She nodded. "I'll take care of Mom. Are you coming back?"

"We'll see. I'll try." I said, kissing her hair. "Love you, Claire-bear."

"Love you, Quil." she said softly as I closed the door to her room.

***

Emily was still standing at the window, looking out at the road, even though we'd have no choice of seeing the accident from their house.

"Honey, come and have a drink or something." Sam called quietly.

Emily shook her head. "I think I should go check on the kids..." she trudged down the hall.

"How's Claire taking it?" Sam asked me from across the table.

I shrugged. "She's fine. They weren't that close, though."

"Yeah, we all knew that." Sam sighed, rubbing his face. "I'm so close to crying myself, seeing Emily like this."

The phone rang and stopped after a couple of seconds. We both listened to Emily in Toby's room, making sniffing noises to the person on the other end of the line.

"Yes...thank you." she sobbed, hanging it off.

There was a thud, that sounded like Emily had dropped to the floor, and Sam took off from the table so quickly I jumped. He ran to his son's room and I followed, anxious to hear what the police had said.

Sam had pulled Emily off the floor and was holding her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "It's okay." he murmured to her, rocking her from side to side. "Quil...maybe you should go see Claire..."

***

I moved slowly into Claire's room, wondering how much I'd be able to take of her upset.

There was no answer when I knocked on the door, so I walked in.

She was lying in her hammock dreamily, looking out at the rain. Her Quil doll was in her lap, and she was running her fingers over it, her eyes half closed like she was meditating.

She sighed and turned to face me, then her eyes widened when she saw who it was. "Quil,"

I smiled sadly and picked her up, climbing into her hammock myself and setting her back on my lap. "I heard."

She nodded a couple of times. "And do you think it's wrong that I'm not distraught like my mother?"

I shook my head. "Not at all...I undestand. You didn't have much of a relationship with him. I didn't with my parents after I was thirteen either."

She gave me a tiny smile and hugged my middle, resting her head on my chest. "Thanks for coming, Quil."

I rubbed her shoulders. "That's okay, Claire-bear."

We sat in silence for about an hour, watching the rain. It got heavier and lighter and heavier again, creating massive puddles to form in her back yard.

We sat in silence for a couple of hours, then Marylyn came in, mumbled something through her tears that neither of us could understand, turned and walked back out. I watched the doorway from where she had left.

"See?" Claire whispered, resting her head on her hammock again and looked across at me. "This is what it's like for her without true love...how romantic would it be if it were?"

"But it'd also be a lot more distressing for the person left alive." I told her. _Why the hell am I disagreeing with stuff like this?!_

She smiled sadly. "But it could be like Romeo and Juliet...they took their lives for the other."

I sighed and brushed her hair back from her face, smiling at her sadly. "And you don't feel sad at all?"

She put on a minor version of her thinking face and blinked slowly a couple of times. "I don't think it's all crashed down on me yet... It's a lot to take in."

I pulled her into me, keeping her warm as she fell asleep again. She didn't stir at all -- which was weird for her, and I stayed awake for her the whole time, just in case, even though I was ridiculously tired.

She woke up at three o'clock in the morning, sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes and burst into tears. I pulled her away from me to see if something more had happened, then hugged her again, letting her cry it all out on my shoulder.

"My dad died..." she sobbed after twenty minutes. "I don't have a dad!"

"I know, Claire-bear." I murmured into her hair, rubbing her back comfortingly.

She cried for another ten minutes, then stopped, rubbing her eyes. "I think I'm finished." she sniffed softly.

I kissed the corner of her eyes and climbed out of her hammock, carrying her with me. I sat her on the kitchen counter and poured her a big glass of water. "You know you cried more in _The Titanic?_"

She gave me a small smile and took the glass from my hand. "Different circumstances...thank you. For staying with me and everything."

"That's alright, Claire-bear." I said, pulling a lock of her hair gently.

She drank the water without taking a break, then set the glass back on the counter, making a refreshed noise. "I really needed that." she rocked back and leaned her head against the wall, looking down her nose at me. "Do you have any idea where Mom is?"

I shook my head. "I haven't seen her since she left your room."

"We should go check that she hasn't tried to hurt herself..." Claire sighed and slid off the counter, walking to her mother's room. She knocked on the door as loudly as she could a couple of times, then stood back, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Mom?" she asked after half a minute. She knocked again. "Mom, are you in there?"

There was no reply. Claire looked at me for a moment, alarmed, then tried to open the door. "Mom! Unlock the door!"

She turned around and looked at me for help. I walked forward without any hesitation and kicked the door once, making it fly off its hinges.

Marylyn was huddled in the far corner of her room, looking at something small in her hands.

"Mom?" Claire asked warily, walking forward. Marylyn stuffed whatever she was holding under her bed and turned to face Claire. "Hey, Baby."

"What was that?" Claire asked as she jumped onto her mother's bed.

Marylyn shook her head. "Nothing. Why aren't you sleeping? I'll wake you up in the morning."

"Mom..." Claire started. She jumped down quickly and grabbed whatever her mother had had, holding it out of my view. Her eyes widened and she looked up at her mother. "You're pregnant?!"

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**Dah-duh-duuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh!! I had another chapter before this one to post, but I thought it was a bit boring, so I took it out. Sorry if it seems like this all came in a rush! I'll update within a week. Promise! (and I'll be super quick if you all review!)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**Hey! I just wanted to say Happy Halloween to everyone for yesterday! I had fun, and I hope you all did, too! I just hope all of you didn't eat as much sugar as I did and end up wondering if it was an alien growing inside you or just the side effects from Popping Candy...**

**I would like to say a BIG thank you to; for reviewing. Ready?; ****, The all mighty and powerfulM, spannieren, Shouldna, Razor456, asta123pasta, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, AnaFerg, Gabriela Tortolano, lewislahver127, SwiftDestiny, Hellsinki-Werewolf-69, michellemarie1984, Angelic-Story and Asha123,**_**THANK YOU!!**_

**Ah, you're so crazy...**

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**Chapter 21**

**CPOV**

My mother burst into a new set of tears and put her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking heavily.

"Mom," I threw the pregnancy test on the floor and grabbed her shoulder. "How long have you known about this?" This was going to make it so much harder for her to get over Dad dying!

"I took the test just after I found out Troy had been in the accident..." she cried. "Which makes it so much worse now I know he's died!"

I narrowed my eyes. She'd been acting really weird before, and now I knew why. It still didn't explain... "How is this 'so much worse'?" I asked her. "He wasn't really that good a father to me; I don't know how it's going to matter to a child who never even knew him."

My mother sat up on her bed and held me in a loose hug. _"Please,"_ she said helplessly. "Please don't swear and carry on and threaten you'll never speak to me again."

"What is it, Mom?" I asked her, motioning with my fingers behind my back for Quil to sit with me. He always seemed to be able to keep me calmer than usual. My mother looked back at him as he sat on her bed, but she looked like she didn't care he was here. She should be perfectly comfortable having him around by now, anyway.

"This isn't your father's baby." she said slowly, putting one of her hands on her stomach, which was just about as flat as it normally was anyway.

It took me a second to respond, but when I did, it didn't sound like me at all. Not even to myself. "Are you serious?" I asked, trying to sound calmer than what was exploding in my head. "Who--"

"Ryan." she said sadly, looking down at her bed.

"You..." I frowned. "You slept with Dad's _best friend?!"_

"Claire, please." she said, reaching for me as I stood from her bed. "I'm going for a walk." I said, deciding on the spot. "C'mon, Quil."

I ran out to the front yard and kept walking quicker than my usual pace, toward First Beach. Quil walked quietly beside me.

"I can't believe this..." I muttered angrilly after a while, as the beach came into our sight.

"Lot to take in..." Quil breathed, bending slightly as I made a move to jump onto his back.

"Just a little." I said sarcastically, putting my head into his neck and breathing his scent in deeply. "Ah, where would I be without you, Quil?"

"I don't want to think about it..." he answered honestly.

"Thanks for sticking with me." I said, kissing the back of his head. So much had happened in the last couple of years, when I thought about it, and he was still here, helping me through anything I needed help with.

He carried me into our special place and sat on the driftwood bench we'd made. I climbed off him and sat next to him. "I can't see anything..." I muttered.

There was silence from both of us for a while, then I'd had enough. "How dare she?!"

Quil sighed. "Claire..."

"No!" I almost shouted into the darkness. "Don't try and change my mind and try to help me see things her way! She didn't _know_ Dad was gonna die when she was sleeping with his best friend!"

"She's going through a hard time at the moment, too." he tried to reason, grabbing my hand and pulling me closer to him. He wrapped one arm around my freezing shoulders. "Jeeze, why didn't you bring a jacket?"

I shrugged, though I knew somewhere deep inside me I hadn't so he'd sit so closely to me. Once again, I banished those thoughts from my head. _Someone who likes you like that _back!_ That's what you need..._

I didn't know how long we were sitting there for, not talking to each other and listening to the sound of the waves crash on the beach. "Hmm..." I said after a while. "What time is it?"

"Four thirty..." he said after pulling his cell out of his pocket to check. "Maybe we should be heading back."

"Okay." I sighed, standing up. I waited until he was standing, then took his hand again and let him pull me through the trees that seperated our beach from the rest of it all.

"Don't scream at your mother when we get back." Quil told me. We walked back to the road and slowed down, not just because I couldn't see a thing, but because I was in no hurry to be getting back home any time soon.

***

"Claire, Honey, can you help me with this?" my mother asked at the stove, stirring something in the biggest pot we owned.

I scrunched my nose as I got closer to her cooking, not liking the smell at all. "Ew, Mom, what _is_ that?"

"My casserole." she said dreamily, running her hands over her stomach, now bump-included. "It smells delicious."

"Mmm..." I said, only agreeing with her because I wasn't exactly enjoying her mood swings at the moment. I sniffed the air carefully, gagging slightly. "Just...go sit down. I'll finish it."

"Oh, you know what I could really use?" she asked eagerly. "One of those trays of chocolate fudge brownies you and your aunt used to make all the time."

"I haven't made those for years..." I started unconfidently.

"But they were so yummy!" she insisted.

I sighed and nodded, turning to the pantry and grabbing the ingredients I'd need. "Only if you bring me the phone, then go sit down."

"Who're you calling?"

"Do you need to ask?" I sighed, looking up at her impatiently.

She giggled and ran to the phone, throwing it to me from the other side of the room. I only just caught it, dropping the butter on the floor in the process.

"Claire!"

I groaned. "I'll clean it up!" I insisted, waving her toward the living room.

She smiled once more before walking slowly toward the couch, murmuring things to her still-small stomach.

_"Everything okay?"_ Quil asked.

"Well, hello to you, too." I said cheerfully, hoping I wasn't going to vomit into my mother's dinner.

Quil chuckled. _"Hey, Claire-bear. How's everything going?"_

"Pregnant woman on the rampage." I muttered sourly as I greased the baking tray. "And I could really use some company of my own...what'cha doin'?"

_"Leon and Lisa just had a massive fight, so I'm laughing at the moment."_

"That's not funny..."

"_Oh, no, seriously, it was."_ he insisted.

I giggled lightly into the phone and jumped as my mother's loud voice came in a sing-song way from the living room. Game shows must have been starting...

"Deal or No Deal?"Quil guessed.

"I think so..." I murmured, mixing in the ingredients I'd just put into a mixing bowl.

Quil sighed heavilly. _"Fine, I'm coming. But only because I know how much you love me."_

I bit my lip. "I do love you." I said playfully, frowning at my own words.

_"See you soon."_ he chuckled, hanging up the phone.

I sighed and pressed the 'end' button, throwing the phone on the bench.

It was hard enough admitting to myself that I was developing more than friendly feelings toward my best friend. It was just weird saying it to him, even though I knew he didn't mean it like that.

Of course, I'd always loved Quil. More than anyone else. As soon as I'd understood I could have feelings toward people, the most had always been aimed at him. First, as if he was like my second (or rather, first) father. Then, as if he was my older brother...just more on the friendly, playful side than the side where we constantly bicker and try our best to damage the other physically. When I had gotten into my teen years, he'd started seeming like my best friend, and he was. He always had been. He, hopefully, always would be.

But now, with all the confusing things that had been happening lately...it was different. I'd never actually had a crush on anyone before, other than a couple of hotties from big movies I'd taken a liking to. Nothing like Sally and Kelsi, though. They fell head-over-heals for any guy (and sometimes girl, in Sally's case), that came within a square mile of them.

Maybe I didn't actually have a crush on Quil. Maybe I just didn't know how it actually felt because I'd never experienced it for myself, and it was just that he was a guy that I spent all of my time around. Besides, I was only fifteen, and he looked like he was in his late teens, early twenties. Even if I knew I had a crush on him, I'd consider myself gross.

I thought of Nessie and Jacob. Jake was a whole seventeen years older than Renesmee. They didn't let that come between them, making out at every chance they had. But Nessie was Jake's Imprint. It was different for them...

"I think it's mixed enough." a deep voice sounded from behind me.

I broke out of my daze, jumping majorly and almost spilling chocolate fudge mix down the front of us. "Oh, hey, Quil."

"Did you miss me?"

_Yes!_ "Mm-hm." I said innocently, skipping to the stove and stirring my mother's casserole, which had, of course, decided to stick to the bottom of the pot. "Damn it..."

"I don't think burning it's going to make it any worse..." Quil joked, playfully waving his hand in front of his face.

"I know. It's disgusting...but she thinks it smells good, and I'm in no position to disagree with her..."

"I wouldn't, either." Quil grinned, and I knew he was remembering last week, when he had said a simple sentence and my mother had almost thrown a shoe at his face. "How's the smell in her room going? Maybe we could use the casserole smell to cover it up."

"Shut up..." I said so quietly he wouldn't have been able to hear it if he were human.

I had finally taken the lobster shells out of the vent in her room. We'd come home from the beach to find her sleeping on the couch just after my father had died, and I had trotted into her room and climbed up her wardrobe shelves to retrieve them while Quil had a heart attack underneath me...always over reacting. The smell wouldn't go away, however. I think she was used to it by now, but it couldn't be helping her vomiting problem at all.

When the casserole was finally cooked (I think it was...I wasn't about to taste it to check, and not even Quil was game enough, so I just put it in a bowl and gave it to my mother), I finished off the fudge and the two of us joined my only parent in the living room, where she was screaming at the woman on the screen who was up to some seriously riksy gambling.

"Ooh, take the offer!" Mom said, waving the girl along as if they were standing next to each other. "No--you idiot!"

Quil laughed quietly while I shook my head at the woman on the other side of me. "Mom, you know she can't hear you?"

"I'm going on this show one day." Mom said eagerly.

I sighed and put my head in my hands. "And you won't blow all of the money you have a chance to take, will you?"

"Probably..." she admitted sheepishly. "Ah well, all for the fun, Clairy."

I rolled my eyes as she put her hands on her stomach, babbling away to the small mound. "You're my favorite already!" she said, glancing up to see my reaction, even though I knew she was just playing around. "Yes, you are! Because we all know you're going to love me more than your big sister! You'll be the best little brother in the world."

"Mom, you don't even know if it's a boy or not." I told her, giving her a look.

She shrugged and leant back into the couch cushions. "I don't want to know until I have him.

"Or her."

"Is she--"

"Or he," I interrupted Quil.

He smirked. "Or he...do you think _it's_ going to look a thing like you?"

"Probably not..." I muttered, my lips turning down. I'd gotten most of my looks from my father -- the shape of my lips, my extremely dark chocolate brown eyes, the almost-black of my hair, even my skin, which was a little lighter than my mothers. I'd spent almost all the time the sun was out in its rays, and I wasn't about to go any darker.

That's what I was worried about with the baby coming. If he, or she, looked like her father, people would start and catch on that it wasn't my father's son, or daughter. Ryan's eyes were even lighter than my mothers, with darker hints in them. They weren't hard to recognise, because no one else I knew, except for his son, Bobby, had eyes like him. He also had hair so black it looked like he had died it. All I could do was hope that the baby would look more like his, or her, mother.

"This is delicious, Claire." my mother gushed, offering me some of her murder food. I shook my head. "Naw, I'm not hungry."

"Did you make me fudge?"

"It'll be ready in a couple of hours." I said, walking into the kitchen to check on it.

Quil followed me in. "Are we just hanging around here tonight?"

"What did you want to do?" I asked him, pleased with how I found the chocolate.

"Bonfire party on First Beach." he said happily. "Leon's doing. He's got his first girlfriend."

"Who...?"

"Lisa."

"I thought you said they were fighting today?" I asked, not caring how confused I sounded.

He rolled his eyes. "That was a couple of minutes after he asked her to be his girlfriend. They've made up, though."

"I'm beginning to forgive you for laughing earlier..." I mumbled, jumping up and sitting on the kitchen table.

He shrugged. "It's only Lisa and Leon. I can't see it lasting over a month, anyway."

"So...if we're going to a bonfire party tonight, does that mean I'll be able to meet the new wolves?"

"I guess so." he said, nodding. "I'm pretty sure they'll be coming. But it's not a traditional one, or anything. Just the whole pack showing up, eating, drinking as much alcohol as they could carry and acting like idiots together."

"Sounds like the typical pack party." I said, nodding. "So, I don't want to seem like an idiot when I get there...what're the newest members' names?"

"Uhh..." he frowned, looking deep in thought. "We have another Sam...though I think everyone calls him Samuel to avoid confusion... He was actually names after the other Sam. I think their parents are really close or something. And the others are named Oliver...and...Payton..."

"Okay. I'll get to telling them apart once we get to the party." I said, walking into the living room and sitting back down next to my mother.

"Mom, Quil invited me to a bonfire party with the rest of the Quileute gang...if I leave the fudge here with you, can I go?" Even if she said no, I'd probably end up going, anyway. I wasn't about to miss the chance to spend a whole night of laughing and messing around with Quil and my other best friends...that I probably wouldn't be paying much attention to. I had to try and learn not to cling on to Quil's arm for the whole night sometime soon...

"Of course you can, Baby!" she said happily, grabbing my face in both of her hands. "You know I'd say yes, anyway. And just because it's a weekend, you can stay out later than usual. Just be home before one."

"Uhh...thanks?" I said, pulling back. "Well, I'll just get dressed, wait for your fudge to be ready, and then we'll leave."

She nodded and smiled at Quil. "Thanks for giving her a life that isn't just looking after me."

"Not a problem," Quil said as I skipped into my room, sliding my closet open.

I chewed on the inside of my lip while I sorted through all of my clothes, throwing the ones I didn't want to wear aside.

I finally decided on taking it simply with a pair of my old, faded blue jeans and a light yellow V-neck sweater. Grabbing one of my thickest jackets and lacing up my fleece-lined hiking boots that reached half-way up my calves, I closed my door and met the other two in the living room.

"Aw, you look _beautiful!" _my mother said, opening her arms for a hug. I looked at Quil, my arms asking for help, but he just grinned as I hugged my mother. "Aw, my little girl's growing up." she sniffed, wiping her eyes. "And she's so much prettier than I ever was!" I rolled my eyes and escaped to the kitchen, my excuse to check on the fudge, leaving Quil to deal with the hormonal, thirty-five year old woman.

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**Yay! Bonfire party next chapter! Hope you're liking it! Please review! The more people review the quicker I'll update! :D**

**P.S. 18 days!!!!**** XP**

**Chlowie, xo**


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Hey everyone! I'm back with the twenty-second chapter! Whoa, they're coming up fast... Posting this one especially for my best friend, Asha, because I left her at school all by herself today. Sorry. :( I love you. :)**

**Thank yous to; ****lewislahver127, bookworm1545, spannieren, queenybee8289, Angelic-Story, 90sgurl, Alyra90, Shouldna, allisonlang, Ginaaaa, Asha123, The all mighty and powerfulM, asta123pasta, SwiftDestiny, AnaFerg, twi-nighter, Kara and Hellsinki-Werewolf-69**** for reviewing.**

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**Chapter 22**

**QPOV**

I was still laughing at the look on Marylyn's face when Claire had handed her the tray of fudge, cold from sitting in the freezer just before we left. Claire shook her head and looked out of my truck, her hair blowing out of the open window.

"You can roll that up if you want..." I told her.

She shook her head. "It's very refreshing. It's been a while since I've had my head stuck out of a car's window."

"It got stuck again, didn't it?"

She nodded guiltly. "I admit it. I'm a weakling."

"Naw, this car's just a bitch." I muttered, leaning over to roll it up for her as we stopped at a light. She leaned back in her seat, staring out at the road until I was back in my seat.

"Thanks." she said quietly, pulling her feet up onto her seat.

The light coming from the bonfire on First Beach was enough to guide us to them without Claire catching her feet on things we couldn't see. I held her hand, anyway.

"Quil!" Jacob shouted, running over to greet us. "Guess what!"

"Uhh..." I frowned at him. He was acting oddly cheerful.

Renesmee bounded over, hugging both me and Claire. Then she ran back into Jacob's arms, holding his waist behind her.

"We're getting married!" she sung happily, her smile brighter than I'd ever seen it before.

So that was why Jacob had been so frigging happy lately. I smiled, not wanting to show them any of the jealousy I was feeling at that moment.

I hadn't had a date in thirteen years, and here my best friend was, proposing to a girl who was almost seventeen years younger than him. Well, in years that none of us counted, anyway.

I'd always found it unfair; Nessie had grown up so quickly while Claire's growth was dragged out in the normal way. Not that I hadn't enjoyed watching Claire grow up -- I'd loved it more than any other point in my life. It was just that Jacob had lived through it all quicker, before I could, even though I'd Imprinted around a year earlier.

"Congratulations!" Claire said, walking forward to get a look at the ring on Nessie's third finger. "Wow..." she breathed, smiling up at her best friend before getting pulled into another tight hug. I tensed, scared that Nessie was hurting her, but let it go, knowing Nessie was always careful with humans. Claire didn't look like she was in any pain, either.

"Ah, let's go get something to drink," Jacob said, throwing his arm around my shoulders and steering me in the direction of the rest of the pack.

I noticed Leon and Lisa on the far side of a driftwood log, making out as per usual. I'd forgotten to tell Claire not to say anything about the wolves, then kicked myself for even thinking about her screaming it out. She would've worked out not to say anything as soon as I mentioned Lisa being here. She wasn't stupid.

"Hey, Quil!" one of the new wolves said, waving his hand around. "When did you get here?"

"A couple of minutes ago." I told him, smiling. I didn't know who this was yet -- I hadn't met Oliver or Payton yet.

He stood up and bounded over to me. "I'm Payton," he said, holding out his hand. "And I've heard so many thoughts about you." he snickered.

I smiled. He reminded me of a younger version of myself.

"Uhh...are the other two newies here yet?" Jacob asked him.

He shook his head. "They said they were going to be late. Hey, I don't know her yet, either!"

"That's Claire." I said, noticing who he was looking up. Claire looked up as I said her name and smiled, walking with Renesmee to where Jacob and I were standing.

"Hey, Claire." Payton said, holding his hand out to her. "I'm Payton."

"Oh, hey." she grinned. "You already know my name, so I'm not going to tell you it."

"Okay," he chuckled. "Hey!" he yelled, pointing up the beach. "Look who's here!"

I turned to Jacob, who had just sat down, as Payton started running in the direction of two approaching figures I took to be Samuel and Oliver.

"Ah, I'm so damn happy." Jacob said, smiling serenly as he stared into the flames of the fire.

"I can tell." I muttered. "So...what did Edward have to say about you proposing? I mean...you haven't done _anything_, have you?"

He shook his head. "Do you know how many times Edward would want to kill me if we did anything more than make out?! Actually, sometimes he looks like he wants to murder me if I kiss her, too..." he rolled his eyes.

"So...he doesn't mind you marrying her...I don't get it."

"We're not allowed to get married until she's an adult in human years." he sighed. "And no sex before marriage..." his mouth twisted in annoyment. "Which, I think, is really stupid."

Claire and Nessie, who had gone to talk to Emily and Kim, were suddenly surrounded by the three newest wolves. Claire was steered out by Payton, while Nessie and Kim laughed loudly at something Samuel had said, while Emily gave him a murderous glare.

"I take it that's Oliver?" I asked Jacob, nodding to where a boy was standing beside the younger Sam.

"Mm-hm. He's a pretty funny kid." Jacob said absently, his eyes locked on Nessie.

I cleared my throat and stood up as Payton wrapped his arm around Claire's shoulders.

"Hey, Quil." Claire said happily as I got closer to them.

"Hi," I started walking next to them. "What're you talking about?"

"Nothing, really." Payton grinned, taking his arm from around her. Smart boy.

Claire started humming to herself as she sat on a small hill of pebbles, staring out at the black water.

"What's up, Claire-bear?" I asked her, sitting next to her.

She leant into my side and sighed. "Just too many things happening lately...Mom was talking about going on a holiday soon, before the baby's born."

"It'll have to be soon, if she wants to get on the plane."

"She was thinking about leaving later this month." she muttered bitterly.

Payton whistled boredly from behind us before turning back to the camp, calling out to Oliver.

"Where're you going?" I asked, already missing her.

She shrugged. "She just said we should go away for a weekend."

"Just Saturday and Sunday. No more days than that." I told her.

She laughed gently. "Okay, Quil."

We both looked up as a disturbance entered the party. The laughs and quiet talking was replaced by a scream and angry words being shouted. I stood, shocked as I recognised Leon holding Oliver by the collar of his shirt, screaming something in his face.

"Oh, God..." I muttered, pulling Claire up by the hand and moving a little closer. "If this is what I think it is, I can't see it ending well."

"What?"

"Don't get any closer than this. I'll tell Nessie to come and wait with you, okay? Just...if anyone phases or gets too close, I want you to run. Don't risk anything."

She nodded. I kissed the corner of her eye and ran to Renesmee. "Nessie, can you go and stand with Claire over there? I don't want her getting hurt."

She sighed and nodded, seeming upset by what was going on.

"What happened?" I asked Seth.

He bit his lip and looked at me sadly. "I think...Oliver just Imprinted. On Lisa."

"Shit." I spat, putting my face in my hands.

We all knew Leon could get angry pretty quickly -- he acted like Claire when she was PMSing on his bad days, which, I thought, was pretty good. No one wanted to be within a mile radius of Claire around that time of month. Something that made Claire and Leon different, though, was that Leon could turn into a giant wolf. Claire just threw things, stamped her feet and stared at the walls while you were trying to have a conversation with her.

"Leon, settle down!" Lisa begged, standing up. Leah, who had surprised us all by even leaving work early to come to the party, ran to her and was pulling her back onto her seat in an instant, shaking her head at her, warning her not to get any closer.

"MY GIRLFRIEND!" Leon shouted, making anyone close cover their ears. "HOW DARE YOU?!"

Oliver shook his head, his eyes flicking between his Imprint and Leon. "I -- couldn't help it!" he gasped loudly.

Jacob ran in and pulled Leon's hands off Oliver's collar, pinning them next to the boy's sides. "Leon, shut up. He had no say over it. It's done now. Get-over-it!"

Leon shot Jacob a pretty nasty glare, then turned around and stormed off toward the thick trees lining the beach further up. I heard a bigger creature start running across the ground after a few seconds and knew he'd phased.

"Quil?" Claire's voice asked softly from behind me.

I turned around, ready to tell her off for coming down here, but caught myself when I saw her on Nessie's shoulders. Nessie wouldn't have started bringing her down before Leon had left.

"Should someone go after Leon?" the hybrid asked.

Jacob walked up and took her into his arms as Claire slid off her back to walk to me. "We'll just give him some time." he told her, kissing her hair. "I'd be pretty pissed off, too."

Claire swallowed and looked uneasily around the party. "What about Lisa? She has no idea what's going on..."

Lisa was looking around, her arms folded across her chest against the cold. Leah was muttering words to her, but I doubted they'd be any of truth. Oliver was still looking at her, taking off the jacket he didn't need. He walked closer and handed it to her, looking awfully pleased when she put it on.

"What're the chances." Claire muttered sourly, turning and walking back to where we had been sitting a few moments before.

"What?" I asked her, confused.

She laughed without humour. "I come to a party with wolves I haven't met before, someone Imprints, and it just happens to be the girl who isn't in the middle of it all and already has a boyfriend."

"Claire..." I started.

She started throwing pebbles into the water. "I want an Imprint!"

I sighed and stood up, holding out my hand. "I think we should be heading home. I don't want to be here if Leon decides to come back."

She gave me a look, then let me help her up, keeping hold of my hand as we congratulated Nessie and Jake one last time, said our goodbyes to our other friends and family, and started off toward my truck.

She didn't talk on the car drive home. I was so close to snapping and telling her everything, but I held myself back. I'd already made myself promise that I was going to let her choose her own ways in life. I didn't want to mess anything up for her and lead her in a completely different direction than what she actually wanted.

"Hey, Sweetey." her mother said as she stomped into the living room. "Why're you two back to early?"

"Problems with a guy there." I muttered.

Marylyn gave the two of us a small smile, then turned her head back to the cop show that had gotten her interest. I guessed she had just been asking why we were back to soon to be polite.

Claire threw her jacket in the corner of the room and grabbed her pajamas, walking just as loudly to the bathroom so she could get changed.

She came back in her sweat pants and a top I had given her that I had worn before I phased and hugged me tightly. "This Imprint crap sucks."

"Tell me about it." I chuckled.

"I know. It must be hard for you, too." she said softly, breaking away from me and walking toward her hammock. "But at least you have the big possibility of Imprinting. I never know if I'll find true love, or I'll just be stuck with someone for benifits like my parents." she said. Then she snorted. "Well, I guess Mom was with Dad for less than benifits if she could get the same from other people."

"Just one." I corrected.

"You don't know that." Claire said quietly, picking at the black nail polish on her bitten-off nails.

I sighed and jumped up in her hammock, sitting across from her. "I think you'll find true love." I said, grabbing her hands in mine to stop her ruining all of the trouble she had gone to to paint her nails. "And anyone you choose is going to be so lucky to have you."

She looked at me closely for a second, then down at her knees. "But how will I know if it's just a stupid crush or real? How do I know it exists away from Imprinting?"

"You'll know." I told her, kissing the corner of her eye as I made a move to climb out of her hammock. I turned around on the floor to face her again. "But maybe you'll just end up with an Imprint or something. There's new guys joining the pack all the time."

She smiled with half of her mouth. "Maybe. I hope so."

"Goodnight, Claire-bear." I said, smiling as I let go of her hands.

"'Night, Quil." she muttered, sinking into her pillow and grabbing her stuffed dog. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"For sure." I told her, pulling her blankets closely around her.

She smiled as I kissed her left eye again and watched me leave her room.

"Bye, Marylyn." I said as I entered the living room again.

Marylyn looked up and smiled. "See you, Quil."

I walked slowly out to my truck, shaking my head to myself as I started the engine.

Maybe I was giving too much away. I really shouldn't talk so much about Imprints in front of Claire when I didn't want her to know about ours. I knew she didn't even suspect us having one, though she'd probably considered it before.

But she wouldn't believe it unless I told her about it. She wouldn't think there was any way I'd keep something like that from her -- not when everyone was blabbing it to their soul mate if they had one themselves and running off into the sunset with diamonds on their third fingers.

I fell asleep almost immediately after my shower. I didn't blame myself; I hadn't been sleeping lately, and even though we hadn't stayed long, catching up with the other guys had tired me out a little.

I sighed as I remembered what had happened with Leon. He was probably still running around out there somewhere, losing himself to the animal we could all become.

Hopefully my years to come wouldn't be quite like _that..._

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**Sorry about the bonfire being so short. I wanted to put more in, but I also wanted something to happen, and I couldn't think of much to go in front of it...**

**Review, please! It'll make me post the next chapter faster, as well as smile.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

**Hey guys! This is the 23d chapter. Sorry I took a little longer than usual to post this.**

**Also, thanks to the people who added my story to their favourites and alert's list, and to my reviewers since last chapter; ****Razor456, alynawt, spannieren, The all mighty and powerfulM, bookworm1545, AnaFerg, Ginaaaa, lewislahver127, Hellsinki-Werewolf-69, 42nd Blackbone, SwiftDestiny, Angelic-Story, allisonlang, Asha123 and Shouldna.**

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**Chapter 23**

**CPOV**

I walked slowly into school, the whispering I'd struggled so hard to ignore almost completely gone now. I'd had to go back some time, but I still hadn't been happy about it. Altogether, I'd had about a week and a half off, and my teachers had had a lot of questions for me when I'd gotten back. I'd just told them that I'd been sick.

Of course my friends had been on my side when they'd found out about the incident involving Lucas at his party. Dyllan had offered to 'punch his face in'. I'd declined -- Quil had already told me he was going to do more damage than that to him next time he saw him. This time I really didn't mind.

So, Lucas was still at the top of the food chain, even though he'd been the one to tell half the school about what had happened. He'd made me seem like the bad guy in all of it, saying something like I'd agreed to it and backed out a few minutes later. Kelsi and Sally knew better than to believe shit like that, though. They'd each found better looking people they were spending a bit of time with.

"Just ignore her, Claire." Sally murmured as Gigi Bronson walked past us, her arm linked with Lucas. She was cackling loudly about something I knew I wouldn't really want to hear about.

Lucas snuck a look at me over his shoulder. I stuck my middle finger up at him, making him do that annoying smirk thing and look the other way.

"Why don't you just take him to prison?" Zach asked, disgust covering his face.

I sighed and poked at the mess of food on my plate. "Too much hastle, nothing could be garunteed, and I'd just come out looking like a bigger loser than I have already."

"All about the image." Kelsi sighed hypocritically, examining her nails as she said it.

"You're such an idiot." Cory muttered, frowning playfully at her as he took Sally's hand on the table. Cory and Sally weren't officially going out; they just liked to call themselves 'friends with benifits', much to my own and Dyllan's disgust.

"How close is your mom getting?" Dyllan asked me, moving his chair over so we were closer.

I took a sip from my juice box and swallowed it slowly, not looking up at him as I replied. "She's only, like, half way there. She keeps going on and on about taking a trip before we have to pay for a whole other ticket." I snorted, taking another drink.

"Where're you headed?" Cory asked, looking up from Sally.

"France." I rolled my eyes as I answered. "Apparently she's always wanted to go there, but I think she's just going a little crazy and it was the first place on a travel add she found...she used to take classes on the French language, though."

"Wee wee!" Kelsi said, grinning widely. Zach smirked, Sally rolled her eyes and the rest of us just ignored her.

"Quil going with you?" Sally asked after a few seconds.

I shook my head. "No, but he made me promise I wouldn't be gone for more than two days."

"Aww, he's such a good friend." Sally said, sounding adored. "I wish I had someone like him."

"Don't you dare stay away from me this weekend!" Cory begged, grabbing the front of her shirt. "I promise, I'll do whatever you want me to!" I knew he was only half-joking, but I still laughed along with everyone else.

"Okay," Sally snickered, tapping his head gently. "You've got the neediness down, just gotta get those muscles out!"

Cory snorted and leaned back in his chair, grabbing the big chocolate muffin from his lunch and biting into it. "How do you feel about a beer gut?"

Sally suddenly became very interested in Kelsi's new bracelet, ignoring Cory for the rest of lunch.

***

"How was school?" Quil asked, driving me home after the day had finally come to an end.

"Shit." I said. "We had a science test, people're still talking, and Kelsi hit on Mr. Reg, which ended pretty badly."

Quil didn't find my recounting as funny as it had been at the time. "Tell people to shut up and mind their own business." he said savagely. "God, it's been so long. Why don't they just get over it?"

"Nothing happens in a small town. It's onen of the most exciting thing that has happened, that they know about." I sighed and picked at my nails. People turning into wolves and the rare vampire visits weren't known by the other humans that lived around me. Well, except for the ones that were involved, or in my case, friends with the wolves. "People did give up about it, but when everyone found out about my dad, all the stories started happening again. I'm the talk of the school." I sighed and leaned my head back against the seat.

"I hated the talk at high school." Quil muttered, pulling into my driveway. "It's your mom's last day at work today, isn't it?"

"Yeah, she wanted a long maternity leave." I confirmed. "I think she just wanted to get off early so we could have that big holiday she's been talking about."

"But only for a weekend." Quil reminded me. "I don't want to mope around all by myself for over three days."

"Aww, you have Jake and Nessie. Stay with them through the days."

"Jake gets sick of me after a while when I'm taking all of his time with Nessie." he grinned. "Can't blame him, though..."

I frowned and hopped out of the car, not waiting for him to open my door as he usually did. "I can't be bothered cooking," I sighed as I pulled open the door of our cupboard. "Let's just eat something, then we can order pizza."

I grabbed the Ice Magic, then stood on my tip toes at the freezer to check for ice cream. "Damn." I muttered when I saw there was none there. "Oh well, we'll just have to eat the Ice Magic without its base."

"Then it won't freeze!" he protested.

I put it in the microwave and warmed it for ten seconds -- the weather in La Push was too cold for it to stay melted while it was in the cupboards.

"You could've just asked me to hold it." Quil sighed when I'd taken it out, shaking it to see if it was in liquid form yet.

We sat in my hammock, pouring the melted chocolate into our mouths. "Yum!" I sung in a high pitched voice, passing the bottle to Quil.

"What kind of pizza are we ordering?"

"Well, I'll be getting pepperoni, and I know you'll be finishing that off for me, as well as two other pizzas of your choice..." I licked some chocolate from the side of my mouth. "Just remember to leave Mom some...she's been eating like you lately."

"Not quite." he said as the bottle of chocolate sauce was emptied. "Oops."

We ordered our pizzas a little earlier than we usually would, Quil claiming that he hadn't eaten anything except the Ice Magic for four hours. While we were sitting on the floor of the living room, laughing at a sitcom that had come on, the side door slid open and my mother stepped through.

"Hey guys." she said, smiling down at us. "I'll join you in a second."

She sat down on the floor next to Quil, picked up a piece of pizza and dropped a bundle of tavel papers onto the floor in front of me. "I got the tickets for our trip to France. We're leaving in a week."

"Oh, yippie." I replied dully, taking one of them and flicking through, just looking at the pictures. "And why, exactly, are we going here?"

"Just for a spur of the moment trip." she said, reaching for another piece, though she hadn't finished the first yet.

Quil and I both gave her looks. Though my mother had always enjoyed having spur of the moments, no matter what they were, we didn't believe she'd go out and buy plane tickets just for that, counting the mood swings and crazy hormones and all that she'd developed since becoming pregnant.

"Fine," she bit into her second slice and chewed it for a second. "'Cause people always say that it's all romantic and everything --"

"Isn't that just Paris?"

"Oh, what's the difference?!" she snapped. Quil ate a whole slice of pizza, looking back to the TV screen as if threatened.

"So I'm going to see if I can find someone sexy and romantic to fall in love with me, come back to America with me and help with my second child." she finished, looking pleased with herself.

Okay, now's a good time to mention that my mother was a little eccentric...

"I don't think that'll work, Mom." I said slowly, wondering if she's turn around and bite my head off.

She smiled instead. "I don't either, I'm just in bad need of a holiday and it seems like a good opportunity before there's someone else in our lives."

"Whatever..." I sighed, rolling out on the floor and sighing. "I'm so fricking full."

The two of them finished the four pizzas we'd eventually ordered. I sat on the floor next to them, trying not to vomit my overflowing guts up as they stuffed more and more of it into their mouths.

"How the hell did you fit all of that in?" I moaned, struggling to sit up.

Quil laughed and helped me. "Talent." he winked, then stood up, pulling me with him. "Ah 'kay, well, I'm gonna take off. Jacob's in need of me tonight."

"Oh, what with?" Mom asked interestedly.

Quil shrugged, stalling to make an excuse in his head. "He's thinking about moving or something, and he wants some help packing boxes." he said unsteadily.

Mom nodded, smiling up at my friend as he pulled me into a tight hug. "See you tomorrow, Claire-bear." he said, kissing the corner of my eye as he pulled back and walked to the door, letting himself out.

"You like him." my mother said mischeviously, smiling slyly at me.

"Mom!" I frowned down at her. "I do not! He's my best friend."

"You like him." she repeated.

I groaned and started toward the bathroom for my shower. "No, I don't. And that's just weird...he's, like, what? Nineteen, twenty?"

Okay, he was about thirty years old, and looked about twenty three...he just acted younger. My mother didn't really care about ages, though. She treated everyone, including the most immature of people, the same age as she was. She didn't have a problem talking about anything with anyone. One of the many bad things about her insane personality...

***

"So what've you got planned for this weekend, Claire?" Dyllan asked me, swinging on his chair.

"I'm being taken overseas by a crazy pregnant woman." I told him, folding my legs on the small plastic seat.

He laughed quietly. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."

"Why'd you wanna know?" I asked him. I opened his back and took out his math book and flipped to his homework, copying the answers into my own book.

Dyllan looked uneasy as he picked at the fries on my plate. "Uhh...I was wondering if you wanted to do something."

"Like...movies or something?"

"Yeah..."

"Like...movies as a date or something?"

He pulled up one corner of his mouth. "Yeah..."

"Oh," my eyebrows pulled up slightly, then I recovered myself almost immediately. "Well, unless you want to come to France, I don't think we'll be able to do that."

"No, probably not."

"And long distance dates are kinda impossible..." I grinned. "Almost as bad as long distance relationships."

"So I hear." he said sarcastically.

"But maybe the weekend after?"

"Sounds good." he said, leaning back in his chair, obviously pleased.

_That was odd..._ I thought to myself. I'd never considered going out with any of my best friends. Well, not the ones from school, anyway. It felt even weirder that Dyllan had asked me out, though. I'd always been slightly closer to the guys in our group than Sally and Kelsi, hardly having an interest in anything the two girls wanted to talk about, and Dyllan had always been my favorite out of the three guys.

So this date was probably to end up as me acting like a guy with him and the two of us being idiots to where ever he was taking me...

"What'cha's up to?" Kelsi asked loudly as she and Sally, linking arms, took a seat at the table. Both of them looked at Dyllan questioningly, but I preteded to ignore it. He nodded once smugly, and they gave him happy smiles in return.

So it was obvious they'd known about it...

Cory and Zach ran to our table, both trying to be the quickest out of the two and not caring that some of their food had left their trays and was now scattered on the floor.

"Aha!" Zach said tauntingly to Cory over his shoulder as he dropped in his seat next to me.

"My foot hurts." Cory said quietly, taking the last seat around our table and looking down at his food. Zach elbowed him and tilted his head in Dyllan's direction. Sally kicked them under the table and she and Kelsi both nodded to them.

How long had Dyllan been planning to ask me out for?!

"So..." Sally began, smoothing her hair out on the side of her face. "What've you got planned for this Saturday, Claire?"

"Going to France..." I muttered as I frowned at Dyllan's math work, re-writing it into my book.

Kelsi pouted, then lightened up. "The weekend after?"

"Oh, yeah!" I acted like I'd forgotten already. "I have a date!"

"Oh, really?" Sally asked. God, they were thick. "Is he attractive?"

_"She's_ okay...a thin for my liking. Needs to muscle up a bit." I told them, not looking up from my work.

Zach laughed under his breath. Dyllan pushed him off the chair, causing him to fall on the floor.

"Oh, shut up, Claire! We all know you're going out with Dyllan." Kelsi said bitterly.

"Then why do you keep playing around like that?" I sighed.

The day went by quickly, much to my liking. I walked home after school, all by myself for a nice change. When I'd gotten home I tried to do the rest of my math homework, but ended up scribbling in the margins.

"Glad to see school's taking such an effect on you." a voice said behind me.

I jumped so high I would've been embarrassed even if I was home alone. "What the hell?! Don't do that to me!"

"Aww, I'm sorry, Claire-bear." Quil said, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and kissing my hair. "How are you?"

"I'll be fine, just after I get over my heart attack." I said, clutching my chest dramatically.

He laughed and pulled out the seat next to me. "Was school as crap as always?"

"Naw, it was okay." I said. "I got asked out on a date."

"Who asked?" he asked, his voice darkening as he sat up straighter.

I smirked. "Dyllan. Apparently everyone knew about it. It's the closest Dyllan's ever actually been to have gotten with anyone and we haven't even had a date yet..."

"You really think it's not going to be awkward?"

"I don't think so...it'll probably just turn out to be a normal day out. I think we'll forget it's a date after ten minutes and just act like our old selves."

He nodded. "So...it's not _actually_ a date...?"

"Not really, no." I said, narrowing my eyes at him. "Why?"

"Just because I hate the idea of any guy with you after..." he trailed off, putting his face in his hands.

I sighed and stood up, cramming my books and pencil case back into my bag. "Relax, it's Dyllan. He's too scared to even hold hands with anyone."

Quil gave me a look and followed me into my room, ready to eat a couple of bottles of Ice Magic.

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**It would mean the world to me if you reivewed... :)**

**P.S. 8 days!!**


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Hey guys! Oh my effing God, it's the nineteenth of November, which means I'M GOING TO NEW MOON TODAY!!!!!!! Yeah, so right now it's about twenty-seven passed midnight, and the movie starts at forty passed ten AM. Only ten hours and thirteen minutes to go!**

**Now because it's such a wonderful day that's sure to go down in history for all of us, I'm going to post two chapters. Right now. God, I'm good. :P**

**P.S; thanks to; ****twi-nighter, Asha123, spannieren, SwiftDestiny, alynawt, bookworm1545, Ginaaaa, LockDown, queenybee8289, , lewislahver127, Shouldna, allisonlang, 90sgurl and wowza811**** for reviewing, as well as all of the people who added my stories to their alerts and favourites lists.**

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**Chapter 24**

**QPOV**

"Wake up, Claire-bear. If you don't wake up now, you're not going to make it to the airport!"

Claire opened her eyes slowly, glanced at me and closed them again. It took a couple of seconds for my words to sink in, then she jolted out of her hammock and grabbed a towel, running to the bathroom. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" she yelled over her shoulder, her voice croaky from not being used in hours.

"Sorry, but I know you don't like being woken before the sun's up." I said, feeling guilty. I knew I would've felt guilty if I'd woken her up sooner, as well, but she _did_ have that effect on me.

"It's still dark!" she hissed behind the bathroom door, yelping when the hot water hit her. "This sucks..."

I laughed and walked toward the kitchen to make her breakfast. And mine.

"Are you sure you were in there for long enough?" I asked her half an hour later when she tip toed into the kitchen with a towel around her head and her her dressing gown wrapped tightly around her.

"I smell Pop-Tarts..." she murmured as she sat in the seat across from me and grabbed two from the plate in the middle of the table. "Aw, this is nice." she said through a mouthful of chocolate. "Where's Mom?"

"She said I didn't have to wake her until a couple of minutes before we left. She had everything prepared before she went to sleep, apparently."

"Mmm, I'm sure." Claire said sarcastically, starting on her second Pop-Tart.

Marylyn woke up grumpy, of course, and stalked around the house for about ten minutes until Claire and I convinced her she hadn't forgotten about anything.

"Mom, even if you did forget the kitchen sink, we're coming back on Monday. It won't matter!" Claire insisted.

"Okay..." Marylyn finally gave in and let me carry her bags to my truck. They snuggled in together, trying to keep away from the cold air in the two seats next to the driver's and Marylyn fell to sleep again against the window as soon as we had pulled out of the driveway.

"Do you think she's really asleep, or is she listening to what we're saying about her?" Claire whispered to me, leaning into my side to keep warm.

I wrapped my arm around her so she wouldn't be so uncomfortable. "I don't know, but have you told her about being pregnant yourself?"

We both turned to her mother, who continued to look peaceful against the window.

"Must really be asleep." Claire concluded, grinning. "And you know she wouldn't really be upset if that were true...she'd probably clap her hands and do a dance."

"And get your babies mixed up." I joked.

The rest of the ride consisted of me and Claire joking around, eating the chocolate her mother had packed for the plane ride, and singing loudly to the only songs we could think of -- her mother didn't seem too pleased to be with us at that point.

When we pulled up at the airport; much too soon for my liking, even though we'd been driving for a few hours, I helped Claire wake up her mother and carried their bags in for them.

"I'll see you in a few days." Claire said quietly, just as they were about to board.

"Hurry back." I told her, pulling her into a tight hug. I lifted her up and kissed the corner of her left eye. "Miss you already."

She gave me a sad smile and kissed my cheek as I set her back on the ground. "See you, Quil." she waved, getting led away by Marylyn.

It was odd. I'd never been away from Claire for any longer than a day. Even if I hadn't been able to talk to her, I'd been watching over her. Now she was going to a whole other country and I didn't have anything to do but wait.

I spent the long drive home mourning. It was probably the stupedist thing to do, but I couldn't help it. I thought about her the whole time she was away from me usually, too. This was even worse than the time when I had been banned from seeing her, from what I could remember.

When I parked the car in front of my apartment I chose my next favorite thing. I ran until I was in the forest and phased as soon as I was out of eyes' view.

_"Quil!"_

_"Hey, Seth."_

_"Ah, I was getting _so_ bored here by myself. ...what's wrong?" _he asked me, sensing my mood.

I sighed mentally. _"Claire just left for France."_

_"Oh...oh, I know how that feels. Sandra had to go to her grandmother's funeral in Kentucky and she was gone for four days. You'll be okay."_

_"I know."_

**CPOV**

It was so weird, leaving Quil behind. I couldn't think of the last time we'd been apart for a whole weekend. The only time we both had away from our duties or the disgusting thing I called school we spent together.

"Where's my chocolate...?" my mother was digging through her purse as soon as we'd taken our seats on the plane.

I shrugged, doing my best to keep the guilty look from my face.

"What's wrong, Claire?" she asked me after a half an hour.

I shook my head. "Just feels weird...knowing I'm not going to see Quil for three days."

"You two do have quite a special bond." she said, nodding as she ate the last of the candy bars she'd gotten from the airline hostess.

I got out a book and read, then fell asleep. The plane landing woke me, giving me quite a nasty headache from my ears popping, too, and my mother led me off, into a cab that would take us to the hotel we were staying in.

"This is nice." she said, looking around the small room with the two beds. It was nice, but it was tiny. The bathroom was huge, though. I could spend hours in there.

"What's on TV..." she sat on the bed and turned on the television, flicking through the channels. "Ah, they're all as hard to understand as the people around here."

"I'm hungry." I complained. "Let's go and have a late dinner."

We pulled on our coats and walked out into the streets, looking up at the sky as we walked. We were staying in a fairly large town, but we were in a quiet section of it. I loved looking at the stars. I could see a lot more of them back at home when there weren't clouds blocking them from my view, but that was only on the rare nights. The lights from the city here didn't make nearly as many stand against the black sky.

"Let's just eat here." Mom said, sitting heavily in a chair and picking a menu off the table.

We were outside, sitting at a little round table in a fance restaraunt. The waitors were all dressed perfectly, the womens' hair done up in nice twists on the top back of their head.

"I...don't understand anything on this menu." I said, frowning at the page in front of me.

"We'll just ask for someone who speaks English to help us." Mom assured me, raising her eyebrows at her own menu.

Fortunately, the waitress that came to our table spoke fluent English, with a pretty accent to go with it.

"'Ello, 'ow can I 'elp you?" she asked, hearing us speak on her way over.

"Hello, would you be able to translate some of these meals on our menus for us?" my mother asked politely, giving her a small, embarrassed smile.

"Of course," the waitress said, smiling down at her, though it looked fake.

We listened closely to everything the girl said, nodding even if we didn't understand. Finally, the two of us ordered pasta dishes with no trace of anything we wouldn't normally eat.

"What about the snails?" I joked, wrapping my arms closer around myself.

Mom rolled her eyes and frowned at something behind us. "Is that..."

I turned in my seat and my eyes widened, a huge smile spreading on my face as I jumped up from my chair and flung myself at the six-foot-eight man in front of me.

"Claire!" Embry said in surprise, lifting me off the ground and spinning me around. "Oh my God, you've gotten huge." he said, hugging me tightly. "I mean, I saw you from Quil's mind, but you're a lot bigger in person."

"I forgot how big you were." I said, looking up at him in awe as he set me back on the ground. He was at least two inches taller than my favorite Quileute. "How long've you been in France for?"

"Two months. How about you?"

"Two hours." I laughed. He smiled and looked up as my mother follwed after me. "Hey, Marylyn."

"Embry Call, it's been a while." she said with a playfull smirk. "Why're you in France?"

"Business." he lied, not pausing to let her ask just what kind of business it was he was referring to. "So where're you staying? I'm living just up the road."

"In that hotel." I said, forgetting the name already. I just pointed to the building, which was still in close view.

"I'm visiting tomorrow." he said, smiling widely. "We should do something together. I'll meet you out the front or something."

"Where's the nearest theme park?" I asked him quickly.

My mother laughed. "I'm not going to any theme parks."

"So how've you been, Marylyn?" Embry asked, turning his attention back to her. "Quil told me about Troy. I'm sorry."

My mother nodded a little. "Thank you, Embry. We're coping." she smiled at me and wrapped her arm around me. "Just can't wait until I have a second mouth to feed and take care of." she rolled her eyes.

Embry smiled politely. "I'm sure you'll be getting help." Of course he was referring to Quil. My mother and I both new that.

We made plans to meet out the front of the hotel we were staying in at eleven. That gave my mother and me an okay sleep in and time to have a shower and get dressed before we had to do anything.

Mom offered to buy Embry dinner, but he refused and left just as our food got to the table.

"That was good timing," I commented as I blew on the pasta hanging off my fork.

"You didn't tell me Embry was in France." she accused.

I spoke through a mouthful of food to retaliate. "I didn't know!"

We spent the next three hours walking around, not too far from where we were staying so we wouldn't get lost, then, with just a couple of hours until we had to meet Embry, we started back and went straight to bed.

***

"So where are you actually staying, Embry?" I asked him when my mother left us in the middle of the mall to go to the bathroom. "I know you wouldn't be able to afford buying a new house everytime you moved."

He smiled sheepishly. "I'm living as far away from humanity as I can. As my wolf."

"Where?" I asked him, looking around at all of the buildings.

"Forest." he said. "There's one a...long while away. But it only takes me, like, twenty minutes to run somewhere out of the way so people can't see me. You just have to know the short cuts." he grinned.

I shook my head, looking at my feet as a girl started whispering to her friends and pointing at Embry as they walked past us.

"Maybe you shouldn't stare at them quite to closely..." I murmured quietly to him. "They all look pretty scared."

"Yeah, Quil told me that." he sighed, locking eyes with another young girl that walked by. "He said it just happens as soon as you look into their eyes. I just want to make sure." he told me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "How the hell would Quil know?"

He sucked in a quick breath and looked the complete of other way from me, to a group of girls that were looking at purses. "Well, we all listened to Jared and Seth and that when they Imprinted. Their thoughts showed exactly what it was like..."

I dismissed it and looked up as my mother joined us again.

"Feeling better?"

"Much." she smiled. "I'm having a good day."

Mom hadn't wanted to go to a theme park, for obvious reasons, so Embry had brought us to a big mall not too far from where we were staying. I had brought most of my savings, which was about a hundred dollars from my last birthday, with me on the trip, but I hadn't seen anything I wanted too badly yet.

"Oh, that's a nice skirt, don't you think, Claire?" my mother asked me, trying, yet again, to talk me into buying something.

I shrugged. "It's a lot like one I have at home."

The rest of the day passed so slowly. I couldn't imagine how slow it would've been if Embry wasn't there to keep me company. My mother had a short fuse at the moment, and I always found some way to annoy her to an extent where she would wave her arms around and raise her voice at me. Embry went quiet at these times and became interested in something close to him, no matter if it were a bird or a dress.

The bad thing about hanging with Embry for the day was that it reminded me of Quil. They both had exactly the same hair, skin and eyes, which was unusual, even for people from the reservation. Embry wasn't quite as loud or funny as Quil was, but he did joke around a bit.

I just wished I could've swapped him for Quil.


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

**Chapter 25**

**QPOV**

I was at the airport two hours before Claire's flight came in. I knew I was being stupid -- I'd be bored for ages, but I just wanted to make sure I was there if her flight came in a little early.

I sat in one of the soft chairs for half an hour before I got up to get some coffee. I'd been on patrol the night before, so I hadn't slept since yesterday. I wasn't too cheerful when I hadn't slept for more than twenty four hours...

"Hey, what can I get you today?" the girl behind the counter asked me, looking up and batting her eyelashes.

"Just a tall coffee, please." I said, yawning a little.

"Sure." she turned to the coffee maching behind her and put a paper cup underneath it. "Waiting for your girlfriend to fly in?"

"No, just my best friend." I said, tired of these things always coming up. "She went on a holiday with her mother."

"That's nice." she said, smiling happily.

She brought the coffee back to me and sat it in front of me. "That's five dollars."

"Okay..." I paid her, mentally abusing her for the over-priced airport food.

"Thank you." she smiled as I turned and walked back to my seat, sinking deeply into it.

After an hour and a bit, an announcement was made saying Claire's flight had just gotten in. I stood up and waited at the door for her to come out.

She was one of the first ones, and was walking quickly, towing her mother behind her as she looked around the airport for a few seconds. She soon rested her eyes on me and smiled widely, waving a couple of times. She let go of her mother's hand and ran to me, jumping into my arms.

I squeezed her tightly for a few seconds before loosening my arms and pulling back to see her.

"Missed you." she said, kissing my cheek.

I kissed the corner of her eye and hugged her again. "Missed you more."

She snorted and let me put her back on the ground. She grabbed the handle of her shoulder bag and took my hand. "Guess who we saw while we were there?"

I raised my eyebrow. "I don't know anyone from France, so I'm gonna let you answer it."

"Embry!" she said, still sounding amazed.

I smiled widely. "Oh, yeah! I remember him saying something about going to France a few months ago...I can't believe I forgot about it. Has he found his Imprint yet?" I made sure her mother was far enough behind us not to be able to hear what we were saying.

"Nope," she said sadlly. "But he said that you need more shifts on patrol so he can talk to you again. The only people he's been talking to've been Brady, Leon, Mick and Jacob."

"Did he hear about Oliver and Lisa?"

"I was just about to tell him, but he said he'd already heard. Apparently Leon had a major whinge to him a few nights ago about it." she smiled back up at me. "So, did anything happen while I was away?"

I shrugged. "While we're on the subject of that Imprint, Lisa and Oliver've been talking, and Leon decided he'd get a bit of payback on Oliver."

"Oh God." Claire breathed. "What happened?"

"Just a fight. We broke them up before they did anything serious to each other. Leon only ended up with a black eye and a bleeding lip and Oliver had three broken fingers, but they're both fine now."

"That's good." she said, looking a little disapproving. I didn't blame her.

"Hey, Quil." Marylyn said, walking up behind her daughter from Baggage Claim and putting their bags down. I hugged her briefly and took her bag for her. "How was La Push without us?"

"Oh, so dull." I said, smirking down at her.

I knocked Claire's hand off from where she was holding her bag and started pulling both of them toward the door with Claire and Marylyn following behind me.

"Whoa, Quil, pink's really your color!" Claire said sarcastically, still annoyed that I had taken her bag. I ignored her, putting both of the bags in the back of my truck and pulling a cover over them; it looked like it was going to rain.

"So, you haven't really told me anything about the holiday yet." I started when we were comfortable in the tiny space of my truck.

Claire shrugged and sat back in her seat, giving Marylyn the chance to open her mouth and start blurting things out so quickly I thought I was going to get a headache. After a few minutes I just nodded and smiled when she laughed, letting the words travel through one ear and out the other.

"Well, I'm going to sleep." Marylyn said after a couple of minutes of silence.

I looked up, startled by the sound. I hadn't realized she'd stopped talking. "Okay, Mar. We'll wake you up as soon as we get back to your house."

We didn't need to. She woke up twice on the way and ordered to stop at the nearest rest stop. Claire had complained the whole time about pregnant people having to use the bathroom so much.

"God, just take out your bladder!" she said frustratedly at the window as her mother ran into the shabby building.

"Ah, leave her alone. It's better on a cold toilet seat than my truck's seat."

Claire gave me a smirk and put her feet up on the dashboard. "I'm so glad to be back in America. I couldn't understand anyone in France."

"I thought you took French classes last year?"

"Oh, yeah." she snorted. "Like I actually learnt anything. I spent the whole time doodling little pictures of me in big skirts."

"Sounds like my Claire-bear." I muttered as Marylyn came back into our view.

Claire seated herself properly again as her mother opened the door, slamming it loudly as the freezing air filled the small area. Claire shivvered and took my arm, wrapping it around her shoulders.

"How're you feeling, Mom?" she asked quietly.

"Much better, thanks." Marylyn said, pulling her seat belt around her and smiling at me, letting me go on.

I started the truck once more and drove the rest of the way to La Push.

**CPOV**

"Thanks for driving us home." Mom said, waddling into her bedroom.

"That's okay." Quil waved away what was sure to be a very meaningful speech.

I jumped onto his back, making him have to drop our bags to hold onto me. "'Night, Mommy."

"Wake me up for dinner, Claire." she said, even though it was just past lunch.

I nodded once before she turned into her room and closed the door behind her. Quil carried me into my room and dumped me into the middle of my hammock, taking a seat underneath me on my matress. I leaned over the side, tilting my head and watching him.

I'd been so happy the whole day to see him again. I passed it off because, obviously, it was only because I hadn't been with him for the whole weekend, which was unusual for both of us. He grinned up at me.

"What?"

"Nothing." I said, leaning back onto my hammock and staring at the ceiling. "I'm glad you're back with me."

"Same." he said quietly, running one of his fingers along the bottom of my foot that I had hanging off the side of my hammock.

I sighed and looked up at the pictures on my wall, almost filling it all up. There were pictures from all the stages of my life up there, as well as paintings and drawings and letters that involved Quil and me.

Starting off on the left side of my wall was pictures from my third birthday, most of them a small amount of toddlers from my playgroup, and a couple more of just me and my best friend, who had bright, sparkly makeup smeared messily across his face. He had a golden, plastic tiara with fake green and blue jewels in the front and was pouting for the camera while I smiled next to him, showing off all of my baby teeth that didn't fit in my mouth properly.

Next were photos from First Beach, just the two of us and a couple of Jacob and Nessie, who had been there with us. There was one right in the middle of that group of Nessie and me kicking water at Jacob. Quil had taken that one, I'm guessing. I couldn't really remember anything from eleven years ago.

Then there were some from Nessie's first birthday party, which involved the four-year-old me with cake all over my face and Quil with it in his hair. I had a couple of Nessie looking bored as Alice held up a few dresses in front of her, smiling at the camera.

Then there was a group of photos from Quileute gatherings, like New Years and just parties that they had thrown for stupid little reasons so they could all sit around the bonfire and laugh and mess around and drink and just be themselves.

One big photo of Nessie and me toasting marshmallows over the side of the fire was in the middle of these ones. Nessie hadn't actually eaten the marshmallows, so I'd gotten all of them, just like the other times we'd been toasting them.

There were a couple of photos of Quil and me in our secret place leading off from First Beach joining those ones, then some of a few of Quil's birthdays. I was different ages in all of these, but Quil still looked exactly the same.

Then there were the photos that had been taken as I'd headed into my teenage years, starting off with long line of snaps taken from my thirteenth birthday. I was looking angrilly at the camera in the first couple, just because Kelsi and Sally had insisted on me wearing makeup, but I had gotten over it in a couple of minutes and sung loudly and danced with everyone else there.

Then there was a roll of photos taken from a photo booth from a mall in Port Angeles. Quil and I were pulling different ridiculous faces in most of them, laughing so hard in the others that we had our eyes closed and our heads thrown back.

All that was from this year was a picture of the two of us walking through the forest, taken looking down at us from Nessie who was on Jacob's shoulders. We were still laughing in it, though. Just like we were in most of the other photos up on my wall.

That was one of the great things about hanging out with Quil -- I could be myself. We laughed at the stupedist, tiniest things and no one questioned it. We had our own inside jokes, a few of which we couldn't remember how they had started. And we were always happiest when around each other.

I didn't notice my teeth were chattering until Quil stood up and made sure I was covered with my blanket. "I think I should've checked if that window was left open before you left..." he said guiltily, his beautiful, dark brown eyes looking slightly ashamed. "It's good that no rain got in and everything, but your room's freezing."

"I'll warm up soon enough." I insisted.

He rolled his eyes and pulled off his shirt, chucking it at me quickly so I could pull it over my own while his boiling body heat was still attatched to it.

I pulled it on, savouring the look of Quil without a shirt on. I mentally slapped myself across the face -- there was no need to go perving on him. It was wrong enough that I was thinking about how gorgeous his eyes were...and his skin...and hair...and hands...and bisceps...and the way he laughed when he made a joke about someone...and the face he put on when he was trying to be serious...and -- aw, crap!

So, I was definitely crushing on my best friend...

**************

**Oooh! She's finally realized! Anyway, I hoped you liked this and the last chapter. Review, please!**

**Now I'm off to fix up my hair for the movie in ten hours-and-something-minutes. XD**

**Chlowie, xo**


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

**Hey everybody! I'm back with the twenty-sixth chapter of my story. Thanks to everyone who has so far added my story to their favourites or alerts list, and to all the people who had reviewed. Special thanks to; ****alynawt, Shouldna, 42nd Blackbone, queenybee8289, Hellsinki-Werewolf-69, bookworm1545, spannieren, Ginaaaa, lewislahver127, Amiko-san, allisonlang, Asha123, SwiftDestiny, LockDown, Razor456, asta123pasta and twi-nighter**** for reviewing since I posted the last chapter.**

**And OH MY EFFING GOD, how great was the New Moon movie?! So far I've been to see it twice, but I've bought three more tickets so see it again, so I'm happy with that. :D The first time was the best, but the girl in front of me hated me for wolf-whistling at Taylor (lol. **_**wolf**_**-whistling!) and cheering. Australian crowds are shit. :(**

**Guilty confession:**** I've never pictured Quil as Tyson Houseman when I'm reading or writing about him. In my own head, he's always the amazingly delicious Taylor Lautner, and probably always will be. He keeps me content. :P**

**************

**Chapter 26**

_You would have to be the biggest freak in the whole fucking world!_

I sighed and closed my eyes, tilting my head up to the sky, from where the constant rain drops were falling and hitting my face.

Just another walk to school. With the guilt of an innapropriate wave of feelings for someone extremely close to me leaking through my body. Blegh.

_Maybe I should tell him..._

No, that would be really, really stupid.

_Maybe he wouldn't laugh at me..._

Oh, yeah, and then he could go outside and be brainwashed by some psycho hamster with a drill and one eyeball.

_Okay, that was just weird...maybe he likes someone else and he'd think I was mentally challanged if I told him I liked him..._

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

I looked back down at the sidewalk I was travelling on and frowned. Just a teenage crush...it'd be gone in a month or so.

But it was the first one I'd ever had.

I shook my head and looked up as my name was called.

"Hey, Zach." I said as I fell into step beside him.

"Did you get your math homework done, Claire?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "I was gonna copy off you."

"I was gonna copy of you."

"Well, shit."

"Maybe Kelsi'll have them?" he asked hopefully.

I smirked. "I wouldn't count on it, but you can ask her."

He rolled his eyes and slowed down. I slowed down, too, as the school came into view.

"Are you going out with Dyllan this weekend?" he asked me.

"I think so. I mean, he asked me. He didn't say anything about it yesterday when I saw him."

"Yeah, he's scared of talking to girls." Zach snorted. "I swear he's never been on a date before, let alone talk to one other than you, Kelsi and Sally."

"He talks to heaps of girls." I defended our friend. "Just...not about dating and stuff." I frowned. "He talks about _them_ dating. He doesn't say anything about _him_ dating."

Zach shrugged and stopped just next to the gate of the school. "Ah, I really don't want to go in today."

I took his arm and pulled him in. "C'mon, it's Wednesday already. Halfway there!"

He sighed and shuffled in slowly, wincing as Cory ran up and tackled him. "Guess who's taking Sally out this weekend!"

I raised an eyebrow. "What a coinkidink."

"Kelsi?" Zach asked.

Cory whacked him in the back of the head and pointed to himself. "Hey, Claire."

"Sup, Coz-dawg?"

He shook his head and looked at me in false disgust and bounded off to where Kelsi, Sally and Dyllan were talking underneath a few trees.

"He's such a freak." Zach muttered as we continued to make our way into the school.

"Hey, guys."

The three of them mumbled a hello, then Kelsi and Sally turned back to face one another and argue over what makeup turned out the brightest on tan skin. Dyllan kept looking at me and gave me a tiny smile. I smiled widely back. God, we'd been friends for years and now that he'd asked me out he thought everything had to be awkward between us...

Dyllan chose the seat next to me at lunch. He took the onion I had scraped off my sandwich and put it on his own, just like most other days, then looked up at Kelsi and Sally, who had stopped bickering about a guy in the year above us to look at him with their eyebrows raised.

"What?" he asked.

Sally narrowed her eyes while Kelsi rolled hers, then they turned back to each other.

"So, where are we going this weekend?" I asked him, helping him out a little.

"Oh." he smirked uncomfortable, earning a groan from Cory and took a bite of his sandwich. "We should go see a movie." he said after he swallowed. "Then I'll shout dinner, then we'll go home."

"Sounds like fun." I muttered as I contuinued eating my food. I caught Zach's eye, and he shook his head.

I wasn't the only one who thought that Dyllan was completely hopeless at this stuff...

***

**QPOV**

Claire was one of the last ones to leave school. I watched the gates closely the whole time, probably seeming like the biggest pedophile in the whole of Washington, but as soon as Claire's familiar figure trudged out from behind a row of trees I stopped.

A minute later my door opened and she jumped in, slamming it behind her.

"Hey, Claire-bear." I said as I started up the car.

"Hey, Quil." she sighed.

"What's up?"

"Nothing." she muttered, pulling at her shoelaces which were still done up. "I have that date this weekend." she looked up at me as she said it.

I kept my eyes on the road. "Was Dyllan talking about it all day?"

"Not really." she murmured.

I didn't say anything on the subject. It didn't interest me all that much (yeah, right...), and it was pretty bad news for me if it went really well and they got married somewhere in the future. Then they'd have children...and I'd be named Good Old Uncle Quil Who Didn't Find Love And Get Married So Now He Stalks Us Kids At Night And Watches Momma While He's Supposed To Be Patrolling For Uncle Jacob, Who Did Happen To Find Love And Get His Happily Ever After.

Well, maybe not a name quite that long...

We went out to a small restaraunt that wasn't over-priced like a lot of other places in the local area. Claire stared at the table most of the night.

"What's wrong with you tonight?" I asked her, grabbing her chin so she'd have to look up at me.

She swallowed and shook her head, closing her eyes in the process. "Nothing. I'm just freaking out by an assignment I have to hand in in a few days."

I frowned. "Claire, you should've told me about it. I could've helped you with it instead of bringing you out."

She hesitated. "No, it's an in-school one."

"Then why don't you just ask the teachers for help?"

She shrugged and began playing with the salt shaker. I watched until she spilt it and jumped slightly in her seat.

"Oops..." she picked it up and shook it once over her shoulder absently, then put it back on the table.

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked her.

She sighed and put her face in her hands. "I don't know..."

"Do you feel sick?"

"In the head, or physically?' she asked as she looked through her fingers, up at me.

I narrowed my eyes and raised one of my eyebrows in question. She shook her head and sat up as our food was served.

"Thanks." I muttered to the waitress who bent down a little further than was necessary to put my plate on the table. Claire glared at her as she walked away and grabbed her Coke, taking a long drink.

"This is yummy." she muttered quietly, stuffing her mouth with chicken.

I smirked and wiped a bit of sauce away from the corner of her perfect lips, making her wince a little. "Okay, I want to know what's going on now." I told her.

She widened her eyes in innocence and shook her head. "I dunno wat'cho're talkin' abou'." she said through a mouthful of food.

"Yes, you do." I insisted.

She looked at me for a few seconds, swallowed, took a drink and opened her mouth again. "Just that time of month, I guess."

I let it go, even though it was the eighteenth today and she'd used that excuse on me on the first day of last month when I'd pinched and punched her.

I _was_ worried about her. She was usually always happy and smiled at the tiniest things, but tonight she hardly smiled once and kept her eyes down. I wondered if she'd done something she thought I'd be angry with, but going through all the possible answers, I couldn't find anything.

She managed to get closer to her usual self when we got to Jacob's apartment.

Nessie ran out and waved at us while we ran out of the rain to the building. "Hey, guys!" she said, hugging each of us and taking Claire's hand. "I'm glad you showed up. Jacob's cheating at Pictionary again."

"You're playing Pictionary with two people?" I asked her, confused.

She shrugged. "Practise."

Claire giggled and let Nessie steer her to the elevator. "I'll beat you up." she said as the doors closed us in and she raced for the stairs. When the elevator doors opened up once more, Nessie was leaning against the frame of it. "Took you long enough." she commented as Claire jumped up and attatched herself to Nessie's back. "Oh, Jacob!" she sung.

Jake opened his apartment door and smiled when he saw the two of us. "Hey," he stepped aside to let us in. "Nessie, there was no need to run away like that, you know you can't draw."

Nessie dropped Claire once we were all inside and looked at Jacob sourly, putting her hands on her hips. "I can, too, Jacob, and you knew what that was!"

Jake sighed and sat on his couch. "I had no fricking idea."

"Claire, Quil," Nessie walked to the corner of the living room and picked up a piece of paper that had been crumpled and thrown carelessly to the ground. "What the hell would you say this was?" she unscrunched it and held it up for us both to see.

I frowned and shrugged. "Uhh...a donkey?"

"No, I'm going to say a giraffe." Claire said from next to me, nodding slightly.

Nessie sighed and pouted, throwing it back to the floor and dropping onto the couch beside her fiance with her arms folded tighly across her chest.

"See, Ness?" Jacob started, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Now, next time you have to draw a _turtle_," he emphasised the word, and Claire and I laughed. "Maybe you should try drawing a shoe instead."

Nessie glared at him before grabbing the back of his head and pulling his face to her own to kiss him.

Claire rolled her eyes and seated herself on Jacob's bench, kicking her legs off the edge a little as she looked at the wall.

"Claire?" I asked her, hoping that she'd answer this time.

She looked up at me questioningly.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Seriously, Quil. Everything's okay."

***

**CPOV**

I dawdled out of school. It was Wednesday -- Quil's day to pick me up, and I hadn't really gotten used to being around him since I found out I (supposedly) had a crush on him. I hadn't seen him for that long the day before, so he hadn't really noticed yet, but things were going back to their normal routine and we'd be spending the whole afternoon and night together today.

He looked away from the fence when he saw me coming, smiling at me a little as he did. I crossed the road and pulled the door open roughly, slamming it perhaps a little too harshly behind me.

"Hey, Claire-bear." he said as his truck started up.

"Hey, Quil." I said with a sigh.

He turned his face to me. "What's up?"

I started tugging at my shoelaces, having no real intentions of undoing them. "Nothing...I have that date this weekend." I said, moving away from any subjects on how I was feeling.

Quil had looked back at the road as soon as I'd started talking and he kept them on it when he answered. "Was Dyllan talking about it all day?"

"Not really." I murmured.

Quil didn't say anything else the whole car drive back to my house. I missed him talking to me. I knew he had no idea what was running through my head, so he wouldn't be uncomfortable talking, but he didn't say anything and I didn't, either.

"I thought we could have dinner out tonight?" he said as I dumped my backpack in the corner of my room. "Just at that restaraunt that opened up a couple of weeks ago a few minutes up the road."

"Okay," I said, smiling up at him as best I could. Jeeze, I was trying to figure out whether I liked him or not and he was taking me out to dinner. Thanks for giving me a chance, Quil...

I replaced the pink tartan skirt and stripy stockings I'd worn to school with a pair of tight, black jeans and a white t-shirt, grabbed my jacket off my floor and met Quil just outside of my room, where he was leaning casually against the door frame of the bathroom, his height lessended by how bent his legs were so he could fit without hitting his head.

He stepped out from under it and stood up straight. "What's on TV?"

I shrugged, so we both made our way out to the living room to see.

Four episodes of _Will and Grace _later, Quil stood up and stretched. I kept staring at the television, letting myself get a headache from Karen.

"Ready to go?" he asked, looking back down at me.

I nodded and climbed off the couch, following him to the door.

We got to the restaraunt a bit early for dinner. I found us a table and Quil sat on the opposite side, ordering drinks from a waitress with a little too much padding in her bra as soon as she had come to our table.

After we had ordered out meals, I was looking down at the table for fifteen minutes before Quil had had enough of my small conversing and spoke up.

"What's wrong with you tonight?" he asked me. He took my chin in his big hand and tilted it up to stare at him.

I looked a little too closely at the multiple dark colors that made up his eyes and closed my eyes, shaking my head to deny anything he was saying. "Nothing." I ran through my head to try and find something to pass off my quiet behaviour to. "I'm just freaking out about an assignment I have to hand in in a few days."

"Claire," he said, frowning in dissaproval.

_See? He doesn't think of you anymore than a younger sister..._

"You should've told me about it. I could've helped you with it instead of bringing you out."

_Okay...maybe more of a father figure..._

I quickly thought of a response to this. "No, it's an in-school one."

"Then why don't you just ask the teachers for help?" he asked me.

I shrugged and started pushing the tiny salt shaker in the middle of the table around with my index finger. I jumped a little in my seat as it tipped over and salt rushed out of the top. "Oops..." I took it off the table and shook it once over my shoulder, just like I had done so many times in the past. I didn't need any bag luck at any time, especially when I was confused in my little bubble of feelings like I was at the moment.

"Are you feeling okay?" Quil asked me, sounding a little concerned.

I buried my face into my hands, closing my eyes and seeing nothing but blackness. "I don't know..." I said honestly.

"Do you feel sick?" he asked from somewhere in front of me.

I separated my fingers and looked through them at him. "In the head, or physically?" I asked him. I didn't know about the first option, to be perfectly honest, but I was feeling alright physically. Well, except for the butterflies that had been in the pits of my stomach since he'd picked me up from school.

_Claire...he's too old for you, anyway. No matter how old he acts..._

Shut up. No, fair point.

Quil narrowed his eyes at me and raised one of his eyebrows, letting me know he was confused. I shook my head to tell him not to worry about waiting for me to him an answer and straightened in my seat as my plate was placed in front of me.

"Thank you." I said quietly.

The waitress who had asked us what drinks we were having earlier walked all the way around to Quil's side of the table and bent down so her cleavage was hanging out the top of her shirt and her fat ass was up in the air just behind Quil, who didn't seem to be paying any attention. As she walked back to the bar of the restaraunt, I glared at her savagely, then turned back to the table and grabbed my Coke, drinking for as long as I could without breathing, real slowly.

"This is yummy." I said before putting a massive fork of chicken in my mouth.

Quil smirked and wiped some stray sauce away from the corner of my lips. I winced away from his extremely warm fingers. "Okay, I want to know what's going on now." he told me. Of course he would've found something unusual in that. I never moved away when his skin came into contact with my own. I'd been perfectly used to how warm his hands were since I was two years old.

I widened my eyes and shook my head a couple of times in innocence. "I don't know what you're talking about." I said through my food. I can't say that was exactly how my words turned out, though...

"Yes, you do."

I looked at him for a few seconds, swallowed and took a drink to stall time. "Just that time of month, I guess." I lied. I didn't think twice about it -- it was my cover up for anything nowadays.

Quil didn't say anything else about it, but I could tell he didn't believe me.

I was trying to act more and more like myself throughout the night, telling myself repeatedly I didn't really like Quil in that way...it was probably just because I was a growing girl and was with him enough to know all of his good traits, which, I had to admit, were more than his perfect eyes or his big build. Oops...

We drove to Jacob's apartment after we'd finished dinner. I hadn't seen Nessie in a while, and I was in the mood for a good gossip.

I saw her big hair before I saw her face as she ran out of the entrance and waved us in. "Hey, guys!" she said as she hugged me, then moved to Quil. She took my hand and started pulling us in doors. I didn't mind. I was the only one there who was freezing her ass off in the wet air.

"I'm glad you showed up." Nessie continued. "Jacob's cheating at Pictionary again."

"You're playing Pictionary with two people?" Quil asked as I was about to question it.

She shrugged at both of us. "Practise." she said simply as she pulled me toward the elevator with Quil following closely behind both of us. "I'll beat you up." she promised as the doors closed, with her on the other side of them than Quil and I were.

She was already leaning against the frame of the elevator when the doors slid open. She stood up and smirked. "Took you long enough."

I rushed forward and jumped onto her back, locking my hands around her neck. "Oh, Jacob!" Nessie said in a loud, sing-song voice.

Jacob's apartment door opened and he stuck his head out, smiling at the three of us. "Hey," he said as he moved aside so we could enter. "Nessie, there was no need to run away like that, you know you can't draw."

I was dropped by my best girlfriend as she gave Jacob a pouty, pretend-upset glare and put her hands on her hips. "I can, too, Jacob, and you knew what that was!"

Jacob sank onto his couch as he sighed, while I felt completely confused about what they were talking about. "I had no fricking idea." he insisted.

Nessie started walking to the corner of the living room. "Claire, Quil," she said as she walked. She picked up a piece of paper once she had arrived at the appropriate destination and attempted to smooth out the paper, which had been rolled into a tight ball and thrown at the floor. "What the hell would you say this was?" she held it up for both of us to see once she was satisfied with its state.

I frowned at the paper, wanting to say the right thing for Nessie to win what was going on between her and Jacob, but couldn't grasp it. "Uhh..." Quil decided to take a guess. "A donkey?"

"No, I'm going to say a giraffe." I said, nodding a little.

Nessie sighed, pushing her bottom lip out and throwing the paper to its place on the floor once again. She sat heavily next to Jacob on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest so tightly that her lean bisceps stood out on her upper arms.

"See, Ness?" Jacob asked as he put his arms around her shoulders. "Now, next time you have to draw a _turtle, _maybe you should try drawing a shoe instead."

I laughed with Quil as Jacob said the word turtle, unable to see a trace of anything with a shell in what Nessie had already shown me, then rolled my eyes and jumped up on Jacob's counter when the two of them started making out on Jacob's couch.

"Claire?" Quil asked me in the same tone he'd been speaking in at the restaraunt.

_You don't really like him, remember?_

I looked up at him.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" he asked me.

I shrugged, wishing everything about romantic feelings would just disappear from within me. "Seriously, Quil. Everything's okay."

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**Hoped you liked this chapter! Not very long to go until more things start to happen between them! Yay!!**

**Review, please! As a wolf girl, I'm begging you! (haha -- wolf, dog, begging...no?)**

**P.S; Only 215 days until Eclipse!!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven

**I'm back again! And I'm updating a little earlier than I'd had planned, but only because it was my fifteenth birthday yesterday, and I thought I should post one to celebrate! Oh, I'm getting older!**

**Thank yous to everyone who added my story to their favourites, alerts list, or took the time to review, like; ****SwiftDestiny, Asha123, camkiyo, Shouldna, asta123pasta, bookworm1545, amiko-san, 42nd Blackbone, spannieren, Ginaaaa, alynawt, allisonlang, queenybee8289, twi-nighter, LockDown, ecandbs8, AnaFerg and Hellsinki-Werewolf-69!**

**Here's chapter 27...**

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**Chapter 27**

**QPOV**

Claire was still laughing at the TV, even though it was half past five. I turned my head to her and cleared mt throat.

"Claire-bear, you have to meet Dyllan at six." I reminded her. It wasn't one of my favorite things to remind her about, but I didn't want her to get frustrated with no time left to get ready.

She checked her phone and nodded a couple of times before standing up and turning back to me. "Help me find something to wear?"

"Sure." I said, standing and taking her out-stretched hand as she pulled me to her room.

"What about this?" she asked, grabbing a tight yellow sweater from the far left side of her closet and holding it up in front of her. "It's knew."

"You'd look beautiful in it." I told her. It was the light yellow color I had commented her in so many times before. The color really showed off her tan skin and dark brown hair.

"Oh, I just remembered I don't have any jeans to wear with it, except for my red skinny legs...Kelsi borrowed my gray ones again last week." she said, hanging it back up. "And I don't want to look like Ronald McDonald."

I frowned. "How the hell does Kelsi fit into your jeans? She's a twig."

Claire laughed. "She owns about seventy belts. Literally."

She pulled out a long-sleeved shirt and showed it to me.

"Might be a bit too thin..." I mumbled. Yeah, I was still over-protective about her. I really didn't want her walking around in something so light with the freezing wind outside.

"I can wear a jacket with it." she said. "No, then I'll get too hot. I think we're going to a movie, and I don't want to carry my jacket around with me if I take it off."

She finally picked out a white t-shirt with black printing on the front. She grabbed her red jeans and smiled at me as she made her way to the bathroom.

I was glad she wasn't going to any trouble to change into clothes that weren't far away from her normal style. If she was really worried about how this night was going to turn out, she probably would've traded them in for something like normal jeans and an off-the-shoulders top that most of the girls were wearing these days.

She opened the bathroom door when she was finished changing and I walked in, seating myself on the side of the bath as she grabbed her makeup bag.

"Are you nervous?" I asked her as she whacked herself in the nose with her mascara brush on her way to coat her bottom eyelashes for the second time.

"No, I just suck with this thing." she said, waving it around and looking at my reflection in the mirror. "But I don't think I'll be getting nervous. I'm just going through all the same things I usually do when me and Dyllan hang out. I really don't expect this to turn out like a real date."

Relief washed through me. I didn't think she was too young to date -- she was certainly older than most girls were when they started. I just didn't like thinking of her as someone to go out with people. This was my Claire-bear. She was supposed to spend all of her free time with me, even if we were just lounging around at our friend's house, eating all of the food their Imprint made in her spare time.

"What?" she asked me, her face falling a little in the mirror. "Did my eyeliner turn out really gross? I can't find the pencil sharpener..."

"No, I was just deep in thought." I said, smiling up at her.

"Oh," she smiled back before grabbing the gooey lip gloss that had lasted her for almost three years now and smearing it across her full lips. "That'll do. I can't do anything extravagant with natural colors."

"But your rainbow and fire colored eyelids always look dead sexy." I chuckled. They did look quite good, I'd give her that. Especially since she found all the ways to do them on YouTube. "You look gorgeous."

She looked down, her hair falling forward to conceal her face and mumbled a thank you as she grabbed her tiny makeup bag and walked out of the bathroom, back into her room. "Quil, would you help me try and straighten a bit of my hair in a couple of minutes? Sally came over this morning and straightened it, but it got a few kinks in it through the day."

"It was raining." I reminded her as I grabbed the straightener out of her hand and sat on her bed. She sat down in front of me and straightened up, her hair falling to half way down her back.

I pulled it to her hair gently for about five minutes before she checked her phone and told me it would do. It was almost dead straight, anyway.

"Thanks, Quil." she said as she switched it off at the wall and left the appliance on her floor. "I really need to clean my room..."

"When you get home." I told her, playfully pushing her toward the door.

She giggled and grabbed the money her mother had left her on the table and stuffed it into her pocket -- she had no patience with purses, so she usually just wore clothes with pockets.

She jumped into my truck and slammed the door behind her, pulling her feet up onto the seat to get herself more comfortable. I wondered if she'd start acting more lady-like throughout the date...it wouldn't bother me at all, either way. Dyllan might get offended, though. He was probably more lady-like than her at times.

"Is Mom going to pick me up, or will you?" she asked as I turned into Dyllan's street.

"I told her I would." I said. "She'll most likely fall asleep on the couch as soon as she gets home, anyway."

Claire smiled and nodded in agreement as I stopped the car. "Thank you." she said, checking she had her phone in her pocket and looking back up at me. "So...I'll see you out the front of the cinema at ten."

"See you then." I said, leaning forward and kissing the corner of her eye as she kissed my cheek.

She turned quickly and opened the door, almost falling out as the metal disappeared from in front of her.

"Oof," her feet hit the ground heavily, then she turned and pushed the door closed roughly, smiling up at me before I pulled out of the gutter.

**CPOV**

I smiled at Quil, feeling like the biggest fricking idiot on the whole fucking planet as he pulled out of the gutter.

Agh! I was always the biggest freak when I was around him. Not that it mattered...I didn't _really_ like him. I'd just convinced myself I had on a spur of the moment thing. Yeah. I nodded to myself once as I approached Dyllan's house.

_But _Dyllan_ isn't as good looking as Quil..._

No, I don't think of him like that. I've just spent so much time around him in my life that I've found all of his good qualities.

_And what are his bad ones?!_

He's a little too protective sometimes.

_Which just makes him a good, caring guy._

He wears sweats at least three times a week.

_But only when he has patrol. And what the hell kind of bad quality is that?! It's not even a quality, let alone bad! I've noticed how low they ride on his hips..._

I knocked on the door as I reached it and waited for someone to answer.

Okay, Dyllan_'s_ bad qualities...he wore glasses to school that day because he thought it was cool.

I snorted to myself. He'd insisted that more people should wear them. Cory and Zach had then ripped him off for the rest of the year because he was the only Indian on the whole reservation to ever wear glasses that weren't needed in the sun. Not that many of us wore sun glasses around here, anyway...Dyllan just liked to think of himself as a fashion statement sometimes, I think.

"Hey, Claire." he smiled down at me as he answered the door, therefore ending my list on bad things about him. He was a lot taller than me. Not quite as tall as Quil (no where near it). Around...six one. Maybe taller.

"Hey, Dyllan." I said casually. I pushed passed him and smiled at his father, who was pushed right up against the computer screen, concentrating really hard on the tiny writing. He turned and smiled at me. "Hi, Claire."

Well, maybe Dyllan wasn't the _only_ person on the reservation that had worn glasses. His father had square eyes or something from being on eBay twenty-four/seven. Yeah, he said he was working, but I knew his secret. I had walked in on him bidding on a television set from Hong Kong a few years back...caught him doing the bad stuff.

I said a hello to him and turned back to Dyllan with my eyebrows raised. "You look nice." he commented.

I smiled and swung from side to side in playful flirtaciousness. "Thanks. I painted my nails black and everything." I said, holding them right in front of his face for him to see.

He laughed once. "Claire, your nails are always black."

"Not always." I mumbled, putting my hands into the pockets of the brown tartan jacket I'd grabbed off my bedroom floor.

Dyllan's dad drove us to central Port Angeles and told his son he'd pick him up from the movie cinema at ten. I opened the door of their car and jumped out, straight into a puddle in the gutter.

"Eww..." I kicked my feet a couple of times, sending drops of water everywhere and jumped up, onto the sidewalk.

Dyllan chuckled and stood up after me, falling into step beside me. "Now all we need to do is find somewhere to eat."

We were walking for twenty minutes before we found a place we could both afford. "I'm supposed to buy you dinner, aren't I?" Dyllan asked me, for the first time that night acting like we were on a date.

"Naw, I brought money." I said.

"I can afford it." he told me. "We did just walk in to the cheapest place in town."

I laughed and sat down, grabbing the money out of my pocket and waving it around. "See? It's my mothers, so I don't mind spending it."

He finally allowed me to buy dinner for myself and the two of us ordered and waited for it to be served.

"So, this is fun..." I mumbled.

Dyllan nodded a couple of times from across the table. We'd been joking around a few minutes ago, just like we usually were, but now we were just sitting, waiting for the other to say something.

"So, have you got a crush on anyone?" he asked me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You know, that'd probably be the most uncommon question asked when two people are on a date..."

"But this isn't really turning out to be a date." he sighed and kicked his feet against the legs of his chair. "Maybe it's just 'cause we're friends and stuff."

"So you don't think two people who are close to begin with'll ever end up being something more than just 'friends'?" I asked him. Now I wasn't thinking about him and me...

He seemed to think I was still on that subject. "Well, it worked out alright for Monica and Chandler..."

I rolled my eyes and thanked the waitress who brought us our food. "Thanks." I mumbled.

"We'll just have to try and make it seem more like a date from now on." Dyllan sighed. "Mmm..."

"So what are your parents like?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

He smiled and sat up a little straigher, grabbing his knife and fork. "Well, my mother's a dance teacher and my father owns his own company."

"That sounds interesting." I said, taking a drink of water. "So...do you see your parents much?"

"Oh, so much." he said, laughing a little. "My dad works at home, and my mother only works five days a week for four hours each day, so she's always at home when she's not there or at the gym."

"Your parents have very interesting jobs." I commented. "So...with your mother into sport so much, does she want you to be all fit, too? Do you do any sports?"

"I'm on the school baseball team..."

"Outside of school?" I asked, a mischevious smile creeping onto my face.

Dyllan gave me a look and kicked my shin under the table. "I used to be a dancer." he said under his breath. I'm sure if I hadn't known what his answer would have been I wouldn't have been able to understand what he had said.

I laughed, stomping my feet under the table. "Oh, that's brilliant! You must have massive muscles from that..."

"Shut up, Claire. And I told you before, if you tell _anyone, _I will strangle you." he muttered.

I stifled my giggles and bit my lip, forking some more food and putting it in my mouth. Dyllan had been dancing in one of his mother's classes since he was, like, four. He'd given up only two years ago. I'd actually seen him dance before, and he was really good. He just didn't want anyone else to know about it, which I didn't blame him for. It was probably the reason he'd never had a proper girlfriend...

"Let's go." he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me from the table when we had both finished eating. "Ugh, the rain picked up." he groaned.

I smiled mischeviously. "Let's go for a walk in the rain. I hear that's romantic." I pulled him out into it, my shoulders slumping when I felt how heavy it was coming down. "Yeah, this is romantic."

He laughed and shook his head and the two of us walked the short distance to the cinema, bent over our pockets for some of the way so our phones wouldn't get drenched as much as the rest of us.

"This is fun!" I shouted to him, giggling at the look he gave me as he shook water out of his shoe.

"Oh, yeah..." he said loudly back, sarcastically.

I giggled back and contuinued to pull him through the rain.

Okay, so we were still acting like idiots and not how we were entitled to when going on dates. I was acting a little different from my usual self, I'll admit, but that just happened when I was around guys. I just kind of warded them away like that, anyway, so it wasn't that amazing that I'd never had a boyfriend before.

We barely made it into the cinema in time and recieved a dirty look from more than two of the staff as we saturated their carpet. We lined up for a couple of minutes, then Dyllan, trying to make up for dinner, bought my ticket for me. I got him back by buying the popcorn and drinks.

"What's this movie about?" I asked him.

He shrugged and said it looked alright on the previews, so we took our seats up the back and wiated until it started.

We tried to pay attention to the screen for the first twenty minutes, then got sick of the tame humour and decided to have a little fun of our own. I reached over and grabbed Dyllan's candy, taking a handful of Peanut M&Ms and aiming at the people in front of me. He got some himself and we threw two at the same time.

"Yes, I got someone!" I whispered as the guy's hand went to the back of his head and he turned to the back of the cimena, where there was just the old couple, a couple of teenage guys and Dyllan and me, both of us concentrating hard on the movie.

He stared back a couple of seconds longer, then excused it and turned back to the movie, his hand falling to his date's shoulder.

"See? You're not acting like this is a real date, Dyllan!" I grabbed his hand jokingly and put it around my shoulder. "Actually, take it back and do the whole old yawn thing."

He grinned and pulling his hand back, sat there for a few seconds, then gave a massive, overly-fake yawn and put his arm around my shoulders. I watched him the whole time, laughing quietly.

"How was that?" he asked me in a whisper.

"Oh, I just didn't see it coming!"

We both laughed and kept acting like idiots until the elderly couple put their fingers to their lips and shut us up.

He looked down at me. "You're not really playing the role of a girl on a date here."

I rolled my eyes and leaned into his side, ignoring him as his chest bounced from his laughing under my cheek. "Is this better?"

"Mm-hm."

By the end of the movie, we were copying everything the couple in the upper rows did. I pretended to cry like the girl and grabbed Dyllan's shirt, crying into his chest.

He pretended to act all tough and hugged me like the guy who'd recieved the chocolate coated peanut to the head. "It's okay, Claire." he said in a deep voice. "Why are you crying?"

"I--don't--know!" I said fakely as the other couple turned to give us a dirty look. "I wasn't paying any att-ttention to the screen. I was t-too busy l-looking at your body!"

He laughed and pulled me from the seat, blushing under the stare of the other two as they stood, too. The guy kissed the top of his girlfriend's head. I tilted mine to Dyllan so he could do the same. The girl wrapped her arm around the guy's lower waist. I did the same to Dyllan. Finally, after we'd competed with them for almost a minute, being idiots against each other, she grabbed the back of his head and ripped his mouth down to hers.

"Beat that, bitch." she breathed when they broke apart.

I scowled at her. I hated losing, but I wasn't about to kiss Dyllan -- is it wrong if I say 'ick!' to this?? -- for a stupid competition with some random in a cinema.

Dyllan trotted after me as we left the room. "She's a little competitive." he sighed to the two of them, grinning widely.

"Look who's all in a day dream." I teased when we were back in the main section of the movies. "Wishin' I kissed ya?"

He gave me a look and went to push me away, then put his arm around me and pulled me back. "Well, I've gotta say that this turned out as an alright date."

"Only because I got a little mad with my friends from school and people with big heads annoy me." I muttered.

He snorted. "That guy's head wasn't _that_ big."

"It'd have to be to get hit with something so tiny from my aim." I laughed.

He waved at his father once, then turned back to me. "Uhh...I'll see you at school on Monday?"

I nodded. "See you." I said, turning and running in the direction of Quil's truck as soon as I'd seen it...I didn't want to stay there long enough for Dyllan's chance to kiss me. I was still caught up in my multi-wrong feelings for my best friend, and I wanted to get out of the way of every other distraction for a while.

"How was the movie?" Said Best Friend asked me when I'd closed the rain out of the car behind me.

"Eh," I said. "It was alright, I guess. The main girl's best friend died at the end and her boyfriend helped her through it and I was like 'Clichè, much!', but we spent most of the time annoying people in the cinema."

Quil sighed. "What else could I expect from letting you and Dyllan together?"

I pretended to smiled with him, then turned back to the window and pressed my forehead up against it. I felt terrible.

Yeah, while I was back with Quil all the 'Maybe I don't really like him after all...' had gone, and it was replaced by 'God, he's so hot!' again. And I knew I couldn't ever have him, which made it all so much worse, but it was hard not to have those kind of feelings for him. I'd grown up with him, he'd taken care of me and I'd seen him without a shirt on more times than the leading mathematician would be able to count. So, how would anyone in my position _not _have a crush on him?! Especially when they were going through the most emotional time of their life. Yeah, I was already sick of my teenage years. Maybe I wouldn't be if I had a boyfriend like most of the other girls...

The whole time I'd spent with Dyllan, I'd been thinking about was trying to get over Quil. I couldn't tell anyone about how I'd been crushing on him, which means that there was absolutely no one out there that I could talk to about all the things that mattered while I was going through this stage of my life. So, if I couldn't talk to anyone about it, and I knew it was a hopeless desire I was after, why not try to get rid of it by putting something else in its place?

I thought to how it was supposed to feel when you kissed your true love, and doubted very, very much that I'd be able to feel it if I kissed Dyllan. Maybe it was just because we weren't meant to be together, maybe I'd been brought up believing a load of utter crap, but I knew I wouldn't be able to feel what all the lucky bitches in the stories I loved so much had gushed about for over three hundred pages. So, I was left with a guy I _really _liked that I would never be able to kiss, and another less-hot version that was probably expecting a kiss in two days and I wasn't sure if I even liked him like that...maybe.

Quil dropped me off at the front of my house after the two of us had talked for a while, the conversation easy like ours always were.

"Sweet dreams." he said as the car pulled to a stop in the gutter.

"Yeah, good night." I smiled as I undid my seat belt.

He leant across and kissed the side of my left eye. I swallowed as he pulled away, back into his seat. "I promise I'll be around bright and early to pick you up. We'll go and visit Jake or something."

"Okay." I said, opening my door and falling out, onto the sidewalk. "See you tomorrow." I waved as he pulled out of the gutter and waved back to me.

I walked slowly back to the house. If I was going to talk to anyone about my feeling toward Quil...it would be Nessie. She'd understand more than my other friends would, right?

Sally...would laugh at me and probably call me the opposite of a pedophile. What would that be? Ped...dep. Yeah, she'd call me a depophile.

Kelsi...would act like she was disgusted and then possibly try and lure me away from him so she could have a better chance of leading him into her green and orange silk-sheeted bed. Not to mention using her evil brain washing powers to convince him that he loved her. Not even Quil would be able to withstand those. She'd made me buy some pretty expensive things in the years I'd known her, and I hadn't even liked them. They'd just magically appear in a bag by my side after she'd said they'd look nice on me and notes would mysteriously vanish from my purse.

Zach and Cory...weren't even an option. They'd probably just stare at me after I poured my heart out to both of them until I told them I'd already heated their lunch.

And my mother...wouldn't give me any time to talk to her without asking for a back massage or for some of my fudge. Her being pregnant had made her sense that nothing was about anyone but herself for long periods of time

Yep, so Nessie was who I was left with. She was my closest friend who wasn't the guy I was completely lost over. She'd help me through it without judging me.

After all, she'd gotten with the best friend she'd had as she grew up, so she wasn't about to be a hypocrite about it and go off at me for perhaps having feelings for mine.

But at least she'd gotten with Jacob...

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**Thank you for reading! Remember to review, because you love me!**

**I'll post the next chapter really, really, really soon!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight

**Hello, everyone! I'm sorry about not updating for so long. Things lately have just been...blegh.**

**Oh, and I changed my account name. It's just Chlowie now, without the 14 on the end. That's still my favourite number, though...**

**And, like always, just a quick thank you to the people who favourited my story, added it to alerts, and reviewed, like; ****42nd Blackbone, spannieren, bookworm1545, queenybee8289, LockDown, Ginaaaa, twi-nighter, alynawt, amiko-san, Shouldna, Asha123, sweetmoly and asta123pasta.**

**Here's chapter twenty-eight;**

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**Chapter 28**

"Hey, guys." Nessie smiled as she opened Jacob's door. "Jake just got in the shower."

"How long've you been here?" Quil asked her as he grabbed a packet of chips out of Jacob's cupboard and sat himself on the couch.

"Couple of hours." Nessie shrugged, then turned to me and hugged me. _"What's wrong?" _she asked through the hand she'd just placed on my cheek.

I shook my head and flicked my eyes to Quil, who was paying attention to the TV. Nessie knew me too well -- she picked up on everything.

_"About Quil?" _Nessie asked me silently. I nodded. _"Well, when Jacob gets out of the shower you're telling me everything."_

"That was the idea." I sighed.

"Hm?" Quil asked, turning around on the couch so he could see us.

"Nothing." we both said, smiling at him.

He smiled back once, then turned back to the television. I could tell he knew something was up, but he didn't force it out of us like most people would. He knew when I wanted to keep secrets, and one of my favorite things about him was that he let me keep them to myself.

Jacob decided to grace us with his prescence (those were the exact words from his mouth) after another ten minutes. He and Quil let Nessie and I go out for a walk without thinking twice about it -- Nessie and I tended to have good gossip sessions and they didn't care at all about the usual subjects we discussed.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked as we started walking down the road from Jacob's apartment.

I looked over at my shoulder to the big building and turned back to the road, biting my lip. "Can they still hear us?"

"Doubt it." she said, looking back too. "I dunno..."

"Let's just go a little further. I don't want to underestimate their hearing abilities.

We sat ourselves under a thick tree in the middle of a wide stretch of grass. Nessie looked up at me from the damp, green ground while I swung lamely on the old tree swing.

"I'm waiting." she said after a couple of minutes.

I sighed and hung my head back. "Promise you won't tell another living soul?" I re-thought my words and looked down at her, narrowing my eyes. "Or un-dead."

She giggled and nodded, letting me know it was safe to continue.

I studied her for a few more seconds before I opened my mouth. "I think I have a really, really big thing for Quil."

She smiled. "Whoa... I did not see that coming..."

"It's really wrong, isn't it?" I said, already freaking out and wishing I'd never told her. "Oh my God, I'm the worst friend _ever!"_

"Claire." she chuckled. "Aren't you going out with that Dyllan guy?"

"Kind of...I'm not sure."

"Do you like _him_ like that?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping that if I started, I wouldn't like Quil anymore...oh, this is all so wrong." I knocked my head against the thick rope of the tree swing.

Nessie shook her head at me once I'd opened my eyes. "I think it's a little natural. I mean, you spend _all_ of your time with Quil. You know every little thing about him."

"So...you don't think I'm messed up and disgusting?"

"Nope."

"Even though he's, like, five years older than me in looks? And that's not even age --"

"Claire, how mature is Quil?" she asked me, giving me a playful look.

I thought that one over. "I dunno, he acts around the same age as me..."

"He can be really immature when he's around his friends. I don't even wanna think about what he, Jacob and Embry got up to when they went to school. I've heard some stories before, but I really don't want to think too much into it."

"So you think that just because he acts young...it means that it's okay for me to like him? But he's older than me in real years."

"Maybe it's just me." she said, shrugging. "Maybe it's just because my mother's a whole ninety-one years younger than my father."

"I forgot about that." I admitted, biting my lip. I knew it wasn't her intention, but she'd made me feel bad with that one.

She smiled. "Quil's not getting any older, Claire."

"But one day he might start aging again. What if he Imprints on someone older than he is and he has to give up his wolf straight away?" I started pushing the swing around in a circle while I was stilll sitting on it, the string getting twisted up above me.

"Perhaps you should talk to Quil about all this." she said softly.

I pulled my feet off the ground and spun in what felt like a hundred tiny circles so fast I got dizzy with my eyes closed. I opened them again and frowed at her. "Oh, I'm sure that'd be a _great_ idea, Renesmee."

"Ooh, full name. Ouch." she stuck her tongue out.

"I'm not telling him."

"But you don't know what he'll say!" she insisted, smiling slightly.

I shook my head. "But I know that it won't be anything like. "Oh, let's just forget that I'm too old and hot for someone like you, plus the fact that I can just fall in love with any girl I see on the street and start dating. Then we can tell everyone around the reservation and they can all throw rocks at me and call me a pedophile." I said in a very deep, bad impression of Quil. "Mmmm...no."

She laughed. "This is why I love you, Claire."

"I'm a depophile!" I said, hanging my head back and rocking from side to side on my swing.

"A...what?"

"Opposite of a pedophile."

"That's funny." she said, nodding once. She stood from the ground. "Well, if that's all you wanted to talk about..."

"Wait! You haven't helped me yet!" I said, kicking her knee.

She sighed and sat back down again, watching me closely. "What do _you_ want to do?"

I gave her a long look. "Maybe I should just keep going out with Dyllan."

"And try and fall in love with him?" she sounded a little worried.

I ignored the caution in her voice and shrugged. "If I do, I do. No one's going to be depressed over that. And then it'll be better for me, too, because I'll be able to get over my stupid, school girl crush on Quil."

"Whatever." she sighed, standing and holding her hand out. "Just...don't try _too _hard to fall in love with Dyllan. I think you're going to find your soul mate."

"Hmm." I followed her through the streets slowly. "Thank you for talking to me about these things, Nessie. You're the only one I have."

She put her arm around me and kissed my forehead, cringing a little. "That's okay, Claire. I enjoy them, too."

"Are you okay?"

"A little thirsty..."

"Sorry." I said, taking a step away without letting go of her hand.

She laughed quietly. "It's okay, Claire."

We took longer than we should have, walking back to Jacob's house. Any little detail either of us thought of would be thought of seriously and considered from different views for minutes at a time.

At the end of the day, though, I was still going to stick to my first plan.

***

"Hey, Dyllan!" I said, running out the front door and hugging him as he was about to walk up my stairs. "How've you been since...yesterday?"

He smirked and let go of me. "Okay, I guess. How about you?"

I shrugged. "Okay."

We walked into my room and sat down, me in my hammock, him on my matress. He looked around my room for a couple of minutes. I sighed.

Okay, Dyllan was definitely not my ideal boy friend material. We were still yet to have our first kiss, and he hardly ever hugged me, as well.

Not to mention things'd gotten a little awkward between us. He didn't talk to me the way he used to. When we'd just been best friend he used to tell me everything, like what he was thinking while he talked to people, to what he wanted to do in later life. Now he hardly told me what he'd bought last time he was shopping.

"You're really close to Quil, aren't you?" he asked me, looking at all of the pictures on my photo wall.

I nodded. "I've known him, like, all my life."

"Why does he stick around so much?"

I shrugged, hoping he wouldn't pick up the fact that Quil hadn't changed except for the haircuts throughout all of the pictures. "He used to be best friends with my uncle. He met me when I was a baby and never left."

He stood up to get a closer look at some of the photos, laughing at a few of them. "I wish I had a best friend like this." he took down one of the photos from the photo booth in the mall. "I've never taken crazy photos in a booth before."

"It's heaps of fun." I told him, smiling at the look on both of our faces on the paper. "We'll go sometime."

"Okay." he laughed, sticking it back to my wall. He took a deep breath and sat back down, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Dyllan, you okay?" I asked him.

He nodded and pulled his hands away. "Yeah, I've just been feeling off lately."

"Hm?" I jumped off my hammock and landed in front of my matress, sitting in front of him. "Did you catch a bug or something?"

He shook his head. "No one I know's been sick. The only time I've been out in the cold or rain was our first date, and it's coming on too late to be from that."

I put my hand to his forehead and jerked it back in surprise. "Whoa, you're _really _hot...I think you should go to the hospital, Dyllan."

"It can't be that bad." he insisted, shaking his head slowly.

I put my hand on his arm for a few seconds before taking it off again, my suspicions growing and getting wider into the impossible. "Dyllan, _how_ exactly do you feel?"

He shrugged. "It's hard to explain...my mother said it was probably just growing pains, because I've grown something like four inches in the past month, but -- Claire?"

I'd jumped to my feet and grabbed my cell off the desk beside my bed. I held a finger up to him to tell him I'd be a minute, then took off, out of my room, Quil's number already ringing.

_"Hello?" _he answered on the second ring.

"Quil, is there any way you can come to my house right now? I really need you."

"Claire-bear, what's wrong?"

"I think Dyllan's about to phase." I whispered into the phone. If it was what I thought it was, it'd probably be a bad idea speaking louder than a whisper. I didn't know when their senses started getting better, and I didn't want to freak Dyllan out.

He was silent for a few seconds, then started talking quickly to whom I assumed was Lisa. It sounded like she agreed on something, then Quil came back onto the phone. "I'm on my way now, Claire-bear. Lisa's gonna call someone else to come in and work with her."

"Thank you, Quil. What should I do?"

"Just...get him outside. Don't stand too close to him. Keep him calm. Don't say _anything_ that might upset him. I'm going to get out of people's view so I'm quicker, okay? I'll be there really soon."

"Thanks." I said before hanging up the phone.

I ran back inside and stopped at the door of my room. "Uhh...wanna go out the back?" I asked Dyllan, who looked like he was trying to ignore what he was feeling.

He nodded eagerly and stood, walking almost quicker than he was able to to get out into the cold air.

"Who'd you just call?" he asked me.

"Uhh...Quil. I think you have something he had a while back." I said, fumbling with the back door and hopping out of it after him as soon as I'd gotten it open. "Just...stand over there in the cold. He said that might help."

Dyllan marched over to the trees lining the forest and sat on the ground, his head resting against his knees. "Thanks, Claire." he sighed, just loud enough for me to hear from my place by the back door. I wanted to keep an eye on him, but, like Quil had said, I didn't want to get too close to him. My aunt had enough proof on her once-beautiful face that dangerous things could happen to an unstable shifter.

Even though something really bad was happening right in front of me, I couldn't help but think up postives that could come from all of this. The wolves could Imprint...wouldn't it help if they were already dating someone? I had my fingers crossed that Dyllan would Imprint on me. That was, if he _did _Imprint. I still wasn't sure that was what was going on.

We didn't talk until, at long last, Quil walked out of the forest. He walked to me without making enough noise for Dyllan to look up from the ground and bent over, his face right next to mine. "What's happening?"

"He has a really hot fever and he says he feels weird."

"Okay, well Jacob's on patrol at the moment while Nessie's with her family, so he said he'd sort him out with me if he phased any time soon. If he does, I want you to go straight inside. We don't know what he'll do. I'll go talk to him, okay?"

I nodded once, thanking him quietly as he walked int he direction of my kinda-boyfriend.

**QPOV**

I kneeled next to Dyllan and put my hand gently on his shoulder. "Dyllan?"

He snapped his head up quickly, doing his best to smile when he saw me. "Hey, Quil."

"How're you feeling?"

He shrugged. "Like utter crap. Claire said you'd been through something like this a while ago?"

"I don't know if it's the same thing yet." I admitted. "But if it's what I had, a lot of the guys around here go through it."

"Who?"

"You know my friends, Jacob and Embry?" he nodded. "Then, my other friend Seth? His sister, too, for some reason. We don't know what happened there. And then there's Colling, Brady, Paul, Jared, Claire's uncle Sam...did you know Leon Keeting?"

"Yeah, he left our school a while ago."

"Yeah, well him, and then there were a few more that would've been at the school with you...ugh, I don't know their last names...Samuel, Oliver and Payton?"

He nodded. "I think I know who you're talking about. And they didn't hang out together at school."

I sighed and sat myself on the ground. It looked like this was going to take a while. I wondered if I just really pissed him off, would he phase and then we could all go on with our lives? Maybe I just wouldn't phase after him like I'd told Jacob. I'd stay here and make some kind of cake or cookies with Claire. We hadn't baked in a while...she used to love that.

"So...if I do have the same thing you did, how long does it last?"

"Well, the pain only lasts until the end comes, which is different for everyone, but it's over straight away, pretty much. But then you're kind of stuck with something and you have to decide whether you want to get rid of it or not. Your choice." I really didn't care I was telling him all this. He probably thought I was the biggest freak on the planet by the way I was explaining it to him, but I wasn't about to give him all the answers just yet. Even with his one hundred degree temperature and the way he'd said 'he felt weird', I was a little cautious about what I was telling him. There was still a slight chance he had some weird, contagious and lethal disease from an island that he'd picked up from a tourist he'd gotten too close to. Probably not, though...

It was a whole two hours before anything happened. Claire was watching for the first hour, then got bored and went inside. After half an hour, I could smell something she was cooking. I hoped it was cookies, finding it ironic that I'd been thinking about how little she'd been baking not too long before.

Dyllan sucked in a deep breath, then shuddered. I took a step back and crouched down so I could try and see his face a little better. "Dyllan?"

He looked up at me, his face clammy. "I'm getting worse." he said, starting to shake a fair bit.

I took in his hands, which were shaking a little more every second and looked straight into his eyes, trying to keep the contact.

"Okay, Dyllan, you're going to change in a minute. Dont-freak-out. Listen for anyone talking you can when it happens, and you should hear Jacob. Listen to him, and he'll help you until I get there."

"I don't understand." he said with a groan as his shoulders took on the shaking.

"You'll get it when it happens. You won't believe me if I tell you everything now...and you're in no state to be catching everything I say at the moment, anyway. Jacob and I'll help you through it. It'll be alright."

"Shut up..." he moaned, closing his eyes tightly.

It was five minutes until he exploded into a mass of mousy brown fur. He took off, further into the forest at once. I looked up toward the house, where Claire was watching with abnormally wide eyes, then ran behind a tree, tied my jeans to my ankle, phased and ran off after him.

_"Dyllan, listen to me!" _Jacob was shouting at the new addition to our pack, trying to get him to pay attention to something other than himself.

_"Dyllan!" _We both shouted at once.

We got him calmed down enough to listen to us, then told him all the important parts and rules to being a giant wolf. He actually started to enjoy it after the first two hours. I think he just liked the whole idea of getting to run faster than any human could.

_"Does that mean I have to eat, like, raw cheetahs from now on?" _he asked us.

We laughed. _"No, none of us do that...well, except for Leah."_ Jacob joked. _"She's viscious."_

_"And about this whole love-at-first-sight thing,"_

_"Imprinting." _I said automatically.

_"Yeah, whatever." _We felt him mentally roll his eyes. _"Is is, like, the first person you see when you go back to human, or is it just random?"_

_"Random." _Jacob told him.

Dyllan dug through my thoughts. _"So...would you _like_ me to back off Claire? Because we're kind of together at the moment. I won't tell her about your Imprint to her, by the way."_

_"I wouldn't mind you backing off, but if she's happy, stay with her. Just don't get too involved unless you Imprint on someone else and she gets hurt. I'll hurt you back."_

_"Whoa, Imprinting's strong. I gotta say, Jake, congratulations."_ Dyllan found images of Nessie running through Jacob's thoughts and approved of her looks.

_"You ever think of her as anything more than a stranger, or friend when you meet her, and I'll make sure you run differently from the other wolves in our pack."_

Dyllan flinched from Jacob's threat and ran around a few miles of trees. _"And I caught something about a gross smell and a group of people, but neither of you thought too much about it, so I don't know what that's all about."_

_"Okay, well you're believing in werewolves at the moment, so can you take on another creature kind of associated like that?"_

_"Am I in some kind of _Underworld_ movie?" _he asked when the word _vampire_ ran through our minds. _"Vampires...are you serious?!"_

_"Yeah, and the Cullens aren't that bad. They don't harm the humans, which is what we're here for. We protect them from any other vampires that come through these parts. You'll get to know the Cullens in time so you know which ones to watch over. Just...don't breathe too deeply when you're around them. It's kinda painful." _Jacob warned him.

Dyllan smelt the vamps though us from our memories and cringed. _"I'll hold my breath when I'm around them. There's no way I'll be smelling that any time soon."_

_"If it matters at all to you, apparently we smell just as bad to them." _I shot in. Dyllan gave a mental shrug, informing us that he didn't care.

_"Well," _I backed up a little as my thoughts went to Claire. She'd be impatient to find out what had happened with Dyllan, and he wasn't in the right shape to be telling her himself. I wasn't about to let him near her as unstable as he was, anyway. _"I'll be heading off."_

_"See you, Quil." _Jacob said, his thoughts for once not totally focused on Renesmee as Dyllan shot more questions at him. I ran closer to Claire's house, phased, and walked through the rest of the trees, looking through the window, hoping to be able to see her from where I was standing.

I walked into the kitchen, breathing the smell of her baking in deeply. She was sitting by the window with a book in front of her, looking at the page. I could tell she wasn't reading it. She was waiting to find out what happened.

"Claire."

She looked up and put the book on the counter, walking forward so she was right in front of me and looked almost directly up, into my eyes. "What happened?"

"He phased. He's okay. He was a little freaked out to start with, but Jacob and I talked to him and he's okay with everything."

"Thanks, Quil." she said, moving forward and hugging me. I put my arms around her gently and held her for a second, letting all the stress in my life vanish for the moment.

We both jumped when the oven behind us went off.

"That was quick." she mumbled as she grabbed a cloth and pulled the door down.

"What'd you make?" I asked her, leaning back against the counter.

She smiled and put it on the counter, looking out the window as she did so. "Chocolate cake." she said, looking back to the cake and grabbing a plate out from one of the cupboards. She put the cake on the plate and moved it so it was back against the wall, reaching for another plate. "And I made these cupcakes earlier. They're nearly cold, so you need to hurry up with them."

I smirked and grabbed a couple off the plate, pulling out a chair and sitting in it. "We should really bake more. We used to all the time..."

"Hmm..." she took the seat next to me and pulled her feet up onto the chair, resting her chin on her knees. "Quil?"

"Yeah?" I spoke through a mouthful of food and looked up immediately. She sounded hesitant. Something that was rarely in Claire's voice.

"Now that Dyllan's phased...do you think he'll Imprint on me?" she asked, looking up hopefully.

I put cupcake half I was still working on down onto the table and swallowed, wiping my hands on my work jeans. "Mm...I don't know, Claire-bear. There's so many people out there that could be meant for him..." I didn't want to give her a straight out no. Seeing her upset was not something I wanted. But I knew there was no chance that Dyllan would be able to Imprint on her. Before he'd died, Old Quil had started rambling about the old Quileute legends years ago, telling us all these things that had happened in the past. He said something about two wolves not being able to Imprint on the same person. If that was so...well, it was good for me.

She nodded, her eyes locked on her feet and looked up at me. "So then I shouldn't go any further with us, because he could just Imprint on a random girl when we're out one day. And I don't want to go so far I get hurt with the whole thing. I'll talk to him tomorrow or something."

"No, you won't." I said softly.

"What?"

I gave her a serious look. "Dyllan won't be going to school for a while. Maybe not again, I didn't. And there's no way he's going any where near you while he's this unstable with his temper."

She shook her head. "He's not dangerous enough to hurt me. It's _Dyllan!"_

"Claire, that boy just phased right in front of me. He's been running so quickly he can't keep track of where he's going. He's not safe."

She sighed and pouted. "Fine. I'll just have to dump him over text message. Then everyone will hate me for the rest of my life because that's the most horrible thing a teenage girl can do to her boyfriend."

"Fine." I said, picking up the cupcake again and taking another bite out of it. As long as she wasn't going any where near a new wolf, I was okay. I wasn't risking another incident like Emily's with Claire.

*************

**Was that okay? I hope so. I didn't know if it'd be too much for one chapter, but it filled it up okay, so I don't mind too much. I hope I got the talk with Nessie okay for everyone's expectations...??**

**And oh my Gosh, it's my longest chapter yet! You know what that means... Review, please! It'll make me faster at updating!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine

**Hey, everyone. I would just like to say that I am so, so, so, so, so sorry about not having updated in such a long time. My laptop blew up, and I had to wait a while until it'd turn on again.**

**I'd like to send a big thanks out there to all the people who added my story to their alerts and favourites list since I posted the last chaper. And to these wonderful people; ****alynawt, 42nd Blackbone, spannieren, asta123pasta, bookworm1545, sassymama1973, Ginaaaa, queenybee8289, Amiko-san, Asha123, SwiftDestiny, C.C., LockDown, Alyra90, leydyan22, leydyan22, Mrs. Margo Cullen, nessiecullen117, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, 90sgurl and SarahBro1 ****for reviewing.**

**Also, I'd just like to say something to all the people who are getting a little impatient with nothing happening between Claire and Quil -- I've planned out exactly how I want things to start happening between them, and it took me a while, so, hopefully, everyone who reads this story will like the idea as much as I think you will. I've told a few people about it already, and they think it's a good idea. It's not long to go now, so if everyone will just wait a little while, it'll be up. I promise to start posting chapters really regularly from now on so we can get there quicker.**

**************

**Chapter 29**

**CPOV**

Quil was working. Dyllan hadn't visited me since he phased. My mother had gone to Emily's house after I'd ignored her over-dramatic attitude and I was sitting in my room, flicking through the channels without paying any attention to the screen because I knew there'd be nothing on halfway through a Saturday.

I was _so____fucking_ _bored!_

Yeah, it had been me that had pushed Quil away when the new guy that had started at his work had sent him a text asking what the hell he was supposed to be doing. It was obvious he was new. He didn't even know how to set out the CDs. I knew perfectly well how to do such a thing simply from just visiting the store.

I wish he'd stayed with me, anyway. Even if he did know I was still a little pissed at him.

Dyllan had phased a total of two weeks before and I hadn't seen him since. Kelsi and Sally had had enough of me after I'd tried my hardest to ignore them instead of tell them what had happened with him, (they hadn't believed me when I'd said I didn't know anything about it) and had refused to visit me until I told them.

Quil was a little annoyed with me, too, I think. But only because I'd been annoyed at him to start with. He'd told Dyllan he wasn't to see me until he could get a hold of his attitude because it was making the others upset and causing him to phase and try to tear the shit out of the victim. Apparently he was spending all of his free time in Port Angeles when he could get a lift up with Quil on his way to work.

I checked my phone in case Zach or Cory had tried to text me back, but the screen just showed the background of me and Quil at the last dress-up party Alice had organised and hosted for Nessie's thirteenth. Even though she was almost getting it on and was full-grown, Alice had thought it was important to mark her step into teenage years with a bang. And it had been a big one...

I rolled my eyes and dropped the chunky, pink shit box onto the matress under my hammock and leaned back, my head resting on a stray pillow I'd kicked out of my sleeping space the night before. It had been two hours since I'd talked to anyone, and only had I been complaining at my mother because she was crying over running out of salt to put in her soup.

I was nibbling on my lip and humming to myself when there was a knock on the door. I sat straight up and looked out of my open bedroom to check if I had not just been imagining it to get my hopes up. I could see a six-foot something shadow just outside the door and knew who it was straight away -- Dyllan had grown a couple of inches since he phased, by the looks of it, but he was no where near the size of the older wolves on the reservation.

I pullled open the door eagerly and jumped into his unusually warm arms, almost yelping with shock as the heat hit me. I may have been used to the familiar warmth from spending most of my time with others the same species as he, but just having it radiating from _Dyllan..._it was a little bit of a shock.

"Hey, Claire." he said, bending slightly so my feet touched the ground again. He flinched slightly as I kissed his cheek. I pulled back and gave him a questioning look.

"What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you..." he sighed. He looked a little guilty, and for some reason impatient. He walked into the house and took a seat at our kitchen table, kicking out another chair for me to sit down.

I sat, my eyes always on him and nodded for him to start.

He gave me one tiny smile before opening his mouth to tell me what he needed to. "I Imprinted. Like, five minutes ago."

"Guess there's no chance it's me, huh?" I asked grimly, feeling the bottom drop out of my stomach. If we had been girlfriend and boyfriend, or whatever we were, before, we obviously weren't going to be now.

He shook his head, looking like he was about to apologize.

"It's okay." I said before he could say anything. "You couldn't help it." I was really disappointed about some other girl in the world finding her soulmate, but I wouldn't put on a show with Dyllan sitting in front of me while he was most likely the happiest he'd ever been. I took his hand and held it comfortingly, wondering if he'd pull it from my grasp. He didn't. He just sighed. "So," I started again, deciding I should just try to be happy for him. "Tell me about her."

**QPOV**

"Are you _sure_ you won't top over another rack of CDs?" I asked Carl as I pulled my work shirt off to change. He rolled his eyes and gave me an annoyed look.

"That was a two time thing."

"Two and a half. You're lucky I was standing behind you."

He chuckled and nodded. "I think I'll be right. Lisa's starting in a couple of hours, anyway, so she can help me." he smiled to himself. "Hey, you don't know if she's seeing anyone, do you?"

I hesitated, trying to remember the last news on her and Oliver. "Naw, I think she's got a boyfriend. And he's massive. You wouldn't wanna get in between them."

"Bummer." he muttered, lounging around in the swivvel chair behind the counter. "Oh, okay. See you, Quil." he said, straightening up as customers entered the store and began to look around.

I mumbled a goodbye and slipped out of the shop, jogging to my truck and jumping in.

I'd left Claire at home by herself. I felt terrible for doing it, but she'd all but pushed me out of her door. Even though it had been a good thing that I'd met Carl before the store could be burned to the ground, I still felf guilty for leaving Claire behind.

She was still pissed at me, and she wasn't bothering to hide it. I knew it was just so I said she could see Dyllan again, but he was still too careless. He didn't have anyone like the others who had Imprinted did, so he didn't take the whole wolf thing as seriously. He was just enjoying not being in school through the weekdays.

I knocked on the door of Claire's house a couple of times before sliding it open and walking in, my muddy shoes left behind me on the door mat. She stuck her head out of her room and gave me a tiny smile as I made my way to her. She was annoyed at something, and I didn't want to get too far into the subject in case it was my fault because I'd left her alone.

"What's up?" I asked casually.

She groaned and flopped back onto her matress. "My boyfriend's gay..." she moaned into her hands as she rubbed her face.

"What?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

She gave me a look and sat up, pulling me down so I was sitting next to her. "Dyllan Imprinted."

I swore quietly to myself as I remembered Dyllan. I'd left him back at Port Angeles...oops. "How come he didn't tell me?!" I wondered aloud. "He was in the same town, for God's sake!"

"He came here." she told me. "He told me in person."

"Claire, you shouldn't have let him in. He's too dangerous at the moment." I said seriously, struggling to raise my voice. I'd told them both to keep their distance from each other, but my point had obviously not been made strong enough.

"He's fine, Quil. He's slowed down...since he Imprinted." she said bitterly, her top lip raising slightly.

"When did he Imprint?" I asked her.

"Around lunch...in Port Angeles." she said.

"Who?"

"A _guy!"_ she whined, throwing her hands up in the air. I raised my eyebrows at her outburst, wondering if I'd heard her right. I'd spent so much time since they'd started going on their 'dates' imagining Dyllan with guys that the thoughts could be taking over me and I wouldn't know...

"He's a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pale guy who was shopping with a big group of his girlfriends in Port Angeles and he just happened to take an interest to Dyllan. The second Dyllan looked back at him...boom..." she said glumly.

"Oh...I'm sorry, Claire-bear." I said, putting my arm around her. This was really interesting news. I'd never heard of an Imprint between two people of the same sex before. "So, the guy's obviously gay, right?"

She nodded. "Dyllan said his name's Carter. He just broke up with his boyfriend and he's finding it hard and he said he was cooking dinner for Dyllan tomorrow night."

"How old is he?"

"Seventeen. He thinks Dyllan's twenty-three, but he said it didn't mind. He wasn't going to let such a 'cutey' out of his sight without a little taste." she sighed and rolled her eyes. "I get to meet him tomorrow morning."

"Claire, are you positive he's slowed down."

"No, he really has, Quil. He's even calmer than he was before he phased. And he's not acting himself...he's more..." she frowned to herself and shook her head in confusing as her eyes slowly closed more and more. "Sensitive...girly..._gay!"_

"Haven't you always wanted a gay friend?" I asked her. "Ever since you read that book series?"

She shrugged. "I didn't think I'd be kind of dating the guy that turned out to be him. I mean, Dyllan's always been closer with Kelsi and Sally and me than Cory and Zach, but I thought it was just because they're a lot louder. He was always quieter."

"So are you going to hang out with them all day tomorrow?" I asked her.

She nodded. "I figured it would be fun. Carter's taking Dyllan shopping, and Dyllan said he'd buy me something while we were out." she giggled. "I'm actually thinking of him as a different person now."

"So...you're not really upset that you lost your boyfriend to another guy?" I checked.

She shook her head. "He wasn't the best boyfriend, anyway. We were more just really close friends."

"Good." I said. She gave me a quick glance. "That you're not upset, I mean." I said.

She smiled. "Yeah."

**CPOV**

"Claire, this is Carter." Dyllan motioned to the boy standing beside him as soon as I'd opened the front door that morning. I'd been woken by the knocking and jumped up as quickly as I could, running to catch them. I'd figured I didn't need to wear anything but the underwear I'd slept in, seeing as they wouldn't be interested anyway, so I was almost kicking myself when the blast of icy morning air hit me.

"Hey, Carter." I said, politely smiling at him through chattering teeth.

Dyllan chuckled and moved forward, embracing me in a warm hug that immediately got rid of my chills as he pulled me back inside with Carter bouncing in right behind him. The boy closed the door behind him and smiled brightly back at me.

"It's so nice to meet you, Claire." he said, hugging me tightly once Dyllan had let me go. He let go of me and pulled back to look at me. "Dyllan was talking about you so much yesterday! He _loves_ you."

"Oh," I giggled, already loving Dyllan's choice in men and smiled up at Dyllan. "Love you, too, Dyl."

I looked back at Carter. He wasn't like I had expected him to be. Dyllan had told me he was blonde with blue eyes and light skin, so I had immediately thought of him as Renesmee-pale with icy blue eyes and really light hair. His hair was a light brown color with blonde highlights and his eyes were a dark, deep blue. His skin was lightly tanned, but he looked pale standing in betweed Dyllan and me.

"Oh, you're so pretty." he said, brushing a stray strand of hair from my face. "I envy your skin." he said, looking me over. He even had the cute, gay guy voice they always had in movies. "I can't get a tan half as good as that." he laughed -- no, giggled, really -- and waved one of his hands absently, then looked straight back to me. "And you have such a gorgeous figure! Oh, you're _so_ going to be my new shopping partner!"

I laughed took a step toward my room. "I'm just going to get dressed. I'll be out in a few minutes, 'kay?"

Dyllan nodded, while Carter gave me an 'okie dokie' and I skipped off toward my open door, grabbing my favorite jeans off the floor and a plain gray t-shirt from my wardrobe. I dressed in a rush, pulled my jacket off the foor of my matress and skipped back into the living room, where Carter was looking at a few of the photos around the room.

"Ah, you were such an adorable baby!" he said, pointing to a picture on the television cabinet. "Who's this guy you're always with? Your father?"

I shook my head. "No, that's Quil. My best friend. That's my father." I pointed to a picture of on the small coffee table. "He died a little while ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Carter said, giving me another hug. Dyllan smiled at me over his shoulder. "So, is this Quil coming shopping with us today?"

"No, he's busy." I said. Quil had taken the opportunity to patrol in Dyllan's place. I think he wanted to give me a little more room after I'd told him Dyllan was perfectly okay with his temper now. He'd phased and listened to Dyllan last night, so he finally believed me, but he was still a little over-protective. He'd agreed to it when I'd pointed out that Carter would be with us and he wouldn't dare hurt him. I could tell he was still a little worried over it, though.

"That's a shame." Carter sighed, rocking back and forth on his heels a little. He stood back, leaning into Dyllan and smiled. "So, are we leaving? I'm driving."

"Okay," I said, checking that my shoes were laced up before following the two boys out the door. I turned around and locked the door with the key my mother had left me and jumped down the stairs, careful not to fall on the slippery pavement as they walked past me together. They really did look like a couple, even though Dyllan was nothing like Carter. I knew he'd change in time to be just like Carter wanted him to be.

Carter opened the door of a small, black car, and motioned for me to get in. I slid into the back seat and strapped myself in the middle, beathing in the smell of clean leather deeply as the guys seated themselves in the two front seats. Carter closed the door behind him and looked over at Dyllan, his eyebrows raised. "Safety first." he said.

Dyllan clipped in his seat belt and nodded once to his Imprint as Carter started the car. He turned the radio up and started singing to the song that was playing as he pulled out of my drive way. "Oh, this is going to be so fun!" he said, looking at the road in front of us to check whether he could turn or not. "Are you excited, Claire?" he asked, grinning at me in the revision mirror.

I smiled and nodded back. Even though I was with the guy I thought I'd have a relationship with and his kind-of boyfriend, I really was.

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**I hope you liked it! The next chapter'll be up within the next three days because of how long it took me to post this one. Sorry again!**

**P.S; HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	31. Chapter Thirty

**As promised, I'm back already. I'm getting kind of bored, anyway, being off school for five weeks, so I got ahead of my writing last night.**

**Thanks to; ****spannieren, SarahBro1, asta123pasta, lewislahver127, alynawt, Alyra90, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, bookworm1545, Angelic-Story, MargoPix, queenybee8289, Ginaaaa, SwiftDestiny, Shouldna and Asha123 ****for reviewing since I posted the last chapter, as well as the people who added this story to their favourites and alerts lists. You guys are the ones who make me update!**

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**Chapter 30**

"So, tell me about yourself, Claire." Carter said, smiling as he took a sip of his strawberry and banana thickshake.

I took a long sip of my own drink (a really thick chocolate one with grated up flakes floating around on the top), and set my cup down on the table. "Uh...I'm fifteen years old, I've lived in La Push all of my life, my mother's eight and a half months pregnant and my favorite color's pink..." I grinned. "Was that the kind of stuff you were looking for?"

He shrugged. "Told me a few things about you. That's all I was asking for." he started humming to himself before he looked up again and smiled that really cute smile he had. "Do you have a crush on anyone?"

I laughed breathily once (probably just showing them how nervous the question made me) and gave an uneasy look toward Dyllan. I didn't really want to say anything about liking anyone while he was sitting at the same table as me. We'd been dating yesterday, now I was sitting with him and his boyfriend at an ice cream parlor in Port Angeles. "No..."

"I have to use the bathroom. Don't leave without me." Dyllan said, standing from the table and pushing his chair in behind him. He started walking off toward the bathrooms.

"Miss you already!" Carter called after him. He turned around and smiled happily over his shoulder. I sighed and sunk further down into my chair as Carter leaned forward over the table to talk to me easier. "So who is it?"

"No one..." I said, unable to stop smiling.

"C'mon, Claire, I'm not letting you get away with not telling me!" he said, smiling mischeviously. "Is it that guy who's in all of the photos with you back at your house?" he asked me, his eyes lighting up.

"Quil." I told him automatically.

He smiled. "Aww, it is! Does he know?!"

"Shh," I said, shaking my head. "Naw, he's my best friend in the whole world. I think if I told him I liked him things'd just get weird between us."

He pouted, disappointed and put his chin in his hand. "Have you ever had a boyfriend before, Claire?"

"Not really..."

"Then you're missing out. You should tell Quil." he sighed, looking over my shoulder. "I miss my old boyfriend." he mused. "But I think I'll hold on to Dyllan until he gets sick of me. What I've learnt about him so far, I like."

I smiled back at him. "I don't know if you'll ever be able to get away from him."

"Fine by me. Have you seen his bisceps?!" he opened his mouth in a round **O **shape and gasped. "Yum!"

I giggled. "I'm guessing you haven't seen his abs yet?"

Carter shook his head, smiling widely at whom I assumed to be Dyllan over my shoulder. "Hey, Dylli!" he said, patting the seat next to him. "Claire was just telling me about you...and your abs..."

Dyllan shook his head at me a couple of times and grabbed his milkshake, staring at the table.

"Aww, someone's shy." Carter said, leaning his head against his shoulder. The three of us sat in silence for half a minute before I decided to break it.

"Now you have to tell me something about yourself, Carter." I told him.

He smiled and sat up straight again, resting his face in both of his hands. "Well, I grew up in Seattle, but we moved down here to take care of my grandmommy last year when she had a stroke, I have a younger sister and brother, I play the drums, thought not very well, and my favorite color's blue." he nodded once when he'd finished.

"You're playing drums for me one day." Dyllan told him, giving him a smile that really did mark him as gay. Wow, had I missed that, or did he just start it?

"Make sure you're wearing earplugs." Carter warned, standing from the table as I finished my thickshake. "Let's go, I just got my pay check back."

The three of us walked through the biggest mall we could be bothered to get to, looking in the windows of the stores we passed. Dyllan stopped out the front of one of them and grabbed my hand, pulling me back to him. Carter stopped, too, and looked back with interest at what Dyllan was pointing out.

"Oh, it's so you, Claire!" Carter said, tapping my shoulder excitedly.

I titled my head at the dress Dyllan was holding the hem to. It was a light brown/beigey material with a lighter lace lining the bottom of the skirt that would finish above my knees. There was a necklace with a feather and what looked like part of a dream catcher on it, as well as some traditional Indian beads, on the same coathanger.

"I don't know..."

"Claire, you never wear anything to show off your Native American side!" Dyllan whined.

I gave him a look. "Oh, yeah, and you do."

He stuck his tongue out at me and grabbed one in my size. Holding it up to me, nodded, pleased. "You have to get it."

I grabbed the coat hanger from his fingers and checked the price. "Uhh...I don't think so."

"Just try it on." Carter insisted.

I looked at both of them, one at a time, sighed, nodded and let them drag me to the change rooms.

I pulled the dress on, pleased that the store had heating, and looked at myself in the mirror for a few seconds before I opened the door up again. I had to admit; I did suit it.

"Oh, Claire, you look so hot!" Carter said, motioning for me to spin around. "I'm buying it for you."

"You are not!" I told him sternly. I wasn't about to let someone I'd known for a few hours buy me a dress, no matter how rich they seemed.

"We'll go fifty-fifty." Dyllan said, nodding at Carter.

I shook my head and turned back to the dressing room with intentions to put it straight back on the rack as soon as I'd gotten out again.

When I'd finally pulled all of my clothes back on and walked out of the change room, Dyllan and Carter were at the front counter with a dress identical to the one I'd just tried on. I walked up behing them and cleared my throat. "I don't think so."

"Too late." Carter said, giving me a sweet smile as the woman handed him the bag. "You can pay us back if you really want to, but I wouldn't worry about it."

"You're bitches." I muttered, walking back to the rack and putting the first in its place.

They both laughed. "I've been told that before." Carter said.

Carter left for the bathroom on our break from shopping to get lunch. That left Dyllan and I sitting at the table together. I was feeling a little awkward, but I had no idea what he'd be feeling.

"I really like him, Claire." he told me, smiling in the direction Carter had vanished.

"I know." I took his hand. "And I'm really, really happy for you."

"Thank you." he sighed and put a few fries in his mouth. "I never knew I'd turn out liking guys...or only one."

"There were a few signs." I admitted. He looked at me with interest, so I continued. "Like, how you always preferred to hang around with us girls instead of the guys. Or how you were always trying out different things to wear. Or how you enjoyed dancing so much, but were embarrassed to tell anyone about it."

"You pay more attention to me than I do." he muttered.

"Or how you were always uncomfortable talking about girls you liked." I continued. "Or--"

"I think I got the picture, thanks, Claire." he said, putting his hand over my mouth. "So, did Carter say anything about me?"

"He said he thought you were hot and he was going to try to cling onto you for as long as he could." I said, checking that the person we were talking about still wasn't coming toward us. Guys always seemed to take no time in the bathroom.

"That's okay. He's got no chance of escaping me, anyway." he laughed quietly to himself, then looked up at me. "Would he feel a draw to me...because I've Imprinted on him?"

I shrugged. "No idea. Ask someone who's been Imprinted on."

His eyes widened, then he looked back to the table, as if he'd said too much. He must have remembered how much I wanted it and felt bad that he'd mentioned it to me. I looked at my feet and kicked the table leg boredly. It was awkward enough that I was out with who was my almost-boyfriend less than forty-eight hours ago, worse because he knew how much I wanted an Imprint. I sighed heavily and waited through the horrible silence for him to say something else. Or for Carter to come back.

"I really am happy for you." I said quietly.

He smiled and rested his chin in his hand. "I don't know how I'm supposed to act now...I mean, Carter makes me want to act differently, but it wasn't how I grew up acting."

"Just do what feels natural." I said, reminding myself of one of those horrible kid's cartoons with the important morals at the end.

He grinned and looked up as Carter jumped into the seat beside him. "Hey, good looking."

Dyllan mussed his hair and looked up at me. "We ready to head back home? My feet are just about to fall off."

"You'll need to be on them a lot more if you're going to keep with me." Carter said, jumping from his chair and offering Dyllan his hand. Dyllan took it and let Carter help pull him up, though I knew he would have had no effect on how easily Dyllan got up.

Carter let Dyllan carry his bags out, hanging onto his arm the whole time. I smiled as I walked behind them. I really liked Carter. The Imprint Dyllan had had with him just made me happy for them both.

I jumped in the back of the Carter's car and waited for it to start up. Carter tried to sing to the song on the radio again, but didn't know the words, so it just ended up a pile of mushed up letters. "Oh, Claire, I almost forgot to ask..."

We'd stopped at a set of traffic lights, and Carter was fishing in his pocket for something. He pulled out his phone and tossed it over the seat to me. "Put your number in my phone."

"Okay..." I saved my number as a contact under my name and handed the phone to Dyllan, who gave it to Carter the next time his hands were off the wheel.

"Thanks." He said.

The two of them came into my house when we'd gotten back to La Push. Quil's old truck was parked in the drive way. Carter waggled his eyebrows when he saw me staring at it. I narrowed my eyes at him and slid out of the car, grabbing my bags as I went.

"Are you going to show Quil your new dress?" Dyllan asked me.

"No, she's going to save it and surprise him." Carter told him. "Wear it on his birthday or something special." he gave me a serious glance. I wasn't sure if they were talking just soft enough for Quil not to be able to hear them. He was probably concentrating on the television or something anyway.

I ran up the path and to the front door, knocking on it a couple of times. It opened straight away and Quil pulled me into his arms, kissing the corner of my eye. "Hey, Claire-bear!" I was grateful for my tanned skin as I blushed, imagining what Carter would be thinking.

"So you're the famous Quil!" Said Person exclaimed, walking up behind me with Dyllan beside him.

"And you're...Carter?" Quil asked, remembering the name he'd been told.

Carter nodded. "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too." Quil said politely, holding the door open long enough for them to make their way into my house. "Claire, all your cakes mysteriously disappeared."

"I'll make more when I can get around to it..." I sighed, turning and walking toward my room to put my bags down.

"You didn't show me what you bought!" he protested out of me.

I dropped the bag containing my new dress just inside my room and walked back out with the others. "I just bought those CDs I was looking at last time I went to work with you..." I held up the two cases. "And these shoes." I chucked the new sneakers on the living room floor. "And this jacket." I finished, looking back up at him.

He smiled and picked up the shoes, putting them back into the box. "Gorgeous. Now _where _is your mother?" he looked around as he spoke, as if she would just appear and claim to have been here the whole time.

"Emily and Sam's." I told him. "She was in a bad mood, so I sent her away."

"Claire, you can't just send her away. _She's_ _your_ mother. Not the other way around." he said, chuckling a little.

"She went as if I was her's. Besides, she needed a nice chat with Emily. Sam's working and the two of them hadn't had a girl's day for a while." I said, pleased that I had come up with even an excuse that pathetic in such a short amount of time.

Quil gave up and walked into the kitchen. "Can I get anyone anything to drink?"

The four of us ended up seated around the table with a hot chocolate each. I was having fun, except for the fact that any time Quil would hug me around the shoulders, kiss the corner of my left eye or simply brush hair out of my face, Carter would raise his eyebrows at me and smirk. I was just about to kick him in the shins when my mother came home.

"Helloooo?" she sung through the house, waddling into the kitchen. She stopped and smiled at Dyllan and Carter. "Oh, visitors! Whoa...Dyllan?"

Dyllan nodded and stood up, giving her a careful hug. "Hey, Marylyn."

"That would have to be one of the quickest, biggest growth spurts I've ever seen!" she said, releasing him and standing on her tip toes, as if to prove her point.

Dyllan laughed and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "Yeah, my parents were a little angry about me not having any clothes that fit me."

My mother laughed with him and looked toward Carter. "And who's this one?"

"This is Carter." Dyllan said, holding out his hand behind him and helping Carter to his feet. Mom caught sight of their entertwined hands and gave me a questioning look. I shook my head so she wouldn't bring it up.

"It's so nice to meet you, Ms. Young." Carter gushed, smiling hugely. "I just wanted to tell you that you have a beautiful daughter." I rolled my eyes at his flattery and sunk further into my chair. I wondered if maybe I should point out he was supposed to say this kind of thing to Dyllan's mother...

"Nice to meet you, too, Carter." Mom said, mussing his hair slightly before turning toward the counter and putting a box she'd carried in on it. "Emily made caramel cake. No!" she raised her finger as Quil made a move to get out of his seat and make his way toward the cake. "No, I want some of this left. I _need _it. You can have one piece, Quil. And I mean a piece about yay big." she held up her hands to show him how much cake he could have and he pouted at her. "No more. Claire, you can have some too if you want it."

I shook my head and motioned toward the boys. "Oh, yeah, Dyllan, Carter, if you want some, just ask Claire. I'm going to have a shower."

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**I know, it's not too long, and nothing major happened, but I felt like it was time to have a nice, quiet chapter after the last few. The dress comes back further into the story, so at least something came out of it.**

**Review please! It'll make me faster at updating!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	32. Chapter Thirty One

**Hey, Guys.**

**I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry about the update being so late! Things've been happening, and there hasn't been any time to get the chapter all checked up and ready to post, and I was going to do it last night, but we went to Sydney yesterday, so I was really, really tired and fell asleep on the lounge room floor. So, I'm posting it now!**

**And thank you to ****MargoPix, bookworm1545, Shouldna, suzmac33, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, asta123pasta, lewislahver127, SwiftDestiny, alynawt, Angelic-Story, twi-nighter, SarahBro1, spannieren, Ginaaaa, LockDown, leydyan22, sassymama1973, 90sgurl, kaya, and Chickedy-pea,**** and to the people who added my story to their alerts and favourites.**

**Here's chapter 31;**

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**Chapter 31**

I'd been staring at the same place for about four minutes. I hadn't even noticed if I'd been blinking or not. Quil was on my left side, his body heat causing one side of me to be a lot warmer than the other. I sighed and leant my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. If only...

"Where's your mom?" he asked me suddenly. Maybe he had ideas about _other _people...

"She's at Emily's again." I told him.

He chuckled. "Kick her out again?"

"No, she wanted to go. She said she needed more cake."

"I need more of that cake." he said hungrilly. Maybe he had ideas about something other than _people_...

We were sitting out on the porch of my house, our feet hanging off the side of the pavings in the rain. I loved just sitting with Quil. He was the only person I could be with when not talking wasn't awkward. If I were with anyone else, I'd be trying to keep a conversation going.

"Speak of the devil." he breathed as my mother's car pulled into the driveway. "How is she still driving? Her stomach doesn't even fit behind the steering wheel."

"She pulled her seat all the way back." I snorted. "It just painful sitting in the back seat. You wouldn't stand a chance."

He laughed and got to his feet, bending down to wrap his arms around my waist and pull me up with him. My stomach clenched as soon as he touched me and my legs almost gave in once I was on my feet. God, I was pathetic. And I had no idea how I was going to get over this one.

"Hey, Marylyn." Quil called, waving over his head.

Mom waved as she pulled herself from the car and turned, grabbing a plate on which, I assumed had cake wrapped on it. She walked slowly through the rain, struggling to hold the plate with her massive stomach in the way.

"Hey, Mom." I said, hugging her and taking the plate once she'd reached us. She held me lightly, then pulled back and walked with us inside. She sighed as she sat at the table and leaned back in her chair with her hands on her stomach.

"Your grandmother rang me today." she told me.

I raised my eyebrow. "The one that lives in California?"

"Your only grandmother." she confirmed.

"How the hell did she get in touch with you?" I asked her. I'd never met my father's mother, though apparently she had been down when I was born. She had gone to about as much trouble trying to contact us as we had to contact her.

My mother shrugged and said something about Emily helping with it, then looked back at me. "She asked if you wanted to go down and stay with her for a few weeks. She said you could leave on Monday."

"Mom, you're just about to pop."

"And Emily said she'd stay here to help me. You don't have to take care of me, Claire."

"So...you'd rather me go to California than be here when you have the baby?" I asked her.

She gave me a look that told me to stop acting like I was. "Claire, you know that's not what I meant. But she said she wants to see you again, and she said you could take down a couple of friends for a holiday."

I shot a look toward Quil, who was frowning at the news, then looked back to my mother.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No," I shook my head. I'd never been to California before. "No, I'll go. It should be fun. I might ask Nessie, too."

"Well, you have a week and a bit, so you should probably think about getting some more clothes. I think you might get a little hot walking around there with your usual clothes."

I smiled widely and nodded, running into my room. My second holiday! Whoop, whoop! Dad had always said about taking a family trip sometime, but we never had. I'd stayed in boring little La Push the whole time. Well, boring if you counted out the wolves and vamps scattering the area.

Quil followed me into my room and helped me get my suitcase out of the top of my closet. I dropped it in the corner of my room so it would be easier to get to while I was packing. Opening my closet and taking everything in, I moaned. "I have nothing!"

"Start with these." Quil took all of my t-shirts out of the closet with one hand and held them out to me. "All of them?"

"How long are we staying for?"

"Your mother told me a few weeks. Your grandmother has how you're getting there and home planned out..."

I tilted my head to the side and took several shirts from his outstretched hand, throwing them into the open suitcase in the corner of my room. "And I'll take a couple of pairs of jeans, too."

"And you'll need to buy new swimmers. I'm not leaving La Push without the reassurance we'll be spending half the time there swimming." Quil grinned and I swallowed self-consciously. It was bad enough that I'd grown up in a town that required I hardly showed my forearms. Spending my whole life here hadn't really helped my self-esteem with my body. Not even my t-shirts were skin tight like Kelsi and Sally's. It was worse because I wasn't that good a swimmer. Yeah, I'd taken swimming lessons as a kid in a fifty metre length pool just inside Forks, but I'd given up after about half a year. I couldn't even swim the length of it without my insides feeling like they were on fire.

"I won't let you drown." Quil teased, noticing the look on my face.

I stuck my tongue out at him and walked back to my cupboard, putting three of my favorite pairs of jeans in the big bag before leaving my room with Quil following closely behind me.

*******

"Claire, even if you hadn't asked me I'd be coming!" Nessie said excitedly, bouncing a little after hearing my news. "I haven't gone to anywhere with sun since visiting Zafrina a few years back!"

"And you can ask Jacob to come, too, if you want. Quil's coming."

Nessie smiled widely and clapped her hands a couple of times. "This is going to be _so_ fun!"

"I think it's all a plan to keep me away from La Push while my mother has the baby." I admitted quietly.

Nessie snorted. "Who cares, we're going to California!" she joked loudly. Edward and Bella were suddenly at her door with their eyebrows raised. "That is, if my darling parents allow me to go with you." she corrected herself without turning around.

"You know we're going to let you, Nessie." Bella told her, smirking. "But we wanted to sort out a few things before you leaveThey walked in as she spoke and sat on Nessie's bed with us. It really didn't matter. We could have had four _hundred_ people on it and there would still be room. Okay, a little bit of an exaggeration there.

Edward smirked at how free my thoughts could be at times and looked back to his beautiful daughter. "If Jacob's going, I expect you to follow the rules we've set for you here."

"Dad, I'd never--"

"Don't try and sell me that, Renesmee! Not after I walked in on you two last week!" he 'snapped', not even raising his voice.

Bella shook her head behind her husband's back as Nessie opened her mouth to retaliate, while I wondered curiously what Nessie and Jake had been doing to make Edward so upset. I'd ask her later.

"Whatever, I won't do anything with Jacob." she said. "That you don't want me to." she added.

"We don't really want you to do _anything_ with him." Bella pouted. "You're growing up too quickly."

"Not quickly enough. I look older than you two..." Nessie sighed. "Still can't believe I have to wait 'til I'm eighteen to get married."

"Nessie, I do _not_ want a preview of our honeymoon." Edward muttered, closing his eyes in disgust as he rubbed his temples.

Nessie grinned sheepishly as her parents walked out of her room. I was staying at their house for the night. Mom had been taken to hospital the day before by Quil, who had minded me that night and all of today. I couldn't go to Sam and Emily's, because they'd ditched Hannah and Toby at Sam's sister's house and left on a holiday, so I'd had to choose between staying here, Paul and Rachel's, or Kim and Jared's house.

"So, what'cha wanna do now?" Nessie asked me.

We were interrupted once again as Bella re-entered her room. She moved so quickly I didn't even notice her next to us until she spoke, causing me to jump so high both of them burst into laughter. "Alice wanted you two to call her when you started getting bored."

Nessie's eyes flicked warily to her cell phone on her bed-side desk, then back to her mother. "What does she want?"

"It's Alice. I think we all have a fair idea."

"I really don't feel like--"

"Oh, you'll have fun!" Bella assured her, passing her her phone. "Just call her."

"Why do you want us to go?" Nessie asked her, narrowing her eyes at her.

"I don't _want_ you to go, Honey..." Bella said uneasily.

Edward cleared his throat loudly from the living room while I stared uncomfortable at the wall. "Just drop it, Love. You're a pathetic liar even with immortality."

Bella sighed and threw a dirty look in her husband's direction, then looked back to the two of us. "Are you going to?"

"Fine." Renesmee sighed, pulling me off her bed and dragging me out the front of the cottage, blowing a kiss to her parents over her shoulders.

"I would give anything to have parents as cool as yours." I told her, annoyed a tiny bit at the way she just ignored how lucky she was to have them. "Even though they're so over-protective, they're awesome."

Nessie smiled at me before dialing in a number so fast her fingers were a blur and holding her phone to her ear. "Hey, Alice, Mom said to call you...okay. Love you." she pressed the 'end' button and put her phone back in her pocket and folding her arms. "She's on her way to get us."

Alice skipped around the side of the cottage, smiling widely and hugged us both before turning so her back was to me. "Jump on, Claire. We're going back to the house."

I hesitated. Alice was only something like four-foot-ten, where I was five-six. This was clearly not going to work.

"Oh, c'mon, Claire. You know you're getting carried there no matter what. I can take it." she said impatiently.

I sighed and jumped just the slightest bit off the ground. Alice caught me in her arms and held me tightly until my feet were locked in front of her, then started running at Nessie's pace with her niece running right beside us the whole way.

I didn't mind running at the inhuman speed. Spending a lot of my time on the back of a giant, chocolate brown wolf as a child had made me sure that speed wasn't something to be afraid of. Especially when you were in the arms of a creature even stronger than the ones mostly I hung around. I knew there was no way I could get hurt.

I jumped off as soon as we'd reached the big, white mansion. Nessie stopped just behind us a moment later and turned toward Alice after a seond. "Where is everyone?"

"Out." she said, smiling in a satisfied way. "Emmett and Rosalie left for another honeymoon two days ago, and I'm not going into details on what they're doing, even though I can't seem to block bits and pieces of it out, and I got rid of Jasper, Carlisle and Esme so we could have some girly time, just the three of us. I asked your parents, Nessie, and they said you guys could stay here with me tonight, if you'd like."

"That sounds awesome, Alice." Nessie said, smiling widely. I nodded with Nessie. I'd stayed at the mansion instead of the cottage one time before, and it was one of the best nights of my life. The Cullens really knew how to entertain, not to mention they had the best picture theature I'd ever seen. I couldn't think of a movie that they didn't own.

"Brilliant!" Alice sung, hopping toward the house. "Well, we'll get started with the fun stuff, then we can get you two ready for bed."

"Fun stuff?" I asked her unsurely.

She just laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling me up the stairs with her while Nessie groaned behind us. "You two love me. I know you do." Alice giggled once she'd pushed us down in the comfy chairs in her own massive bathroom and put our feet in individual foot spas. "Oh, is the water too hot? I wasn't sure..."

"No, it's perfect, Alice." I assured her.

She smiled and pulled out what would have to be the biggest beauty kit, picking out a few different things and setting them on the counter in front of her wall-sized mirror. "So, we're starting with foot massages and facials, and you two are going to fill me in on all the gossip."

"Yeah, I'm tired--" Nessie started to worm her way out of it.

"No!" Alice said, stamping her tiny feet. "I _need_ to be kept up-to-date! Ah well, I already know the man of _your _love life...how about you, Claire? Got your eyes set on anybody?"

I hesitated, with a worried glace to Nessie, who was staring straight back at me to hear what I'd say. "No..."

"Ooh, there is!" Alice clapped her hands and looked at me expectantly. "So, do I know him?"

"Alice, there isn't anyone."

"Okay, so I know him." she nodded, then her eyes glazed over. She gasped and grabbed both of my hands. "You have the hots for Quil!"

"How the _hell_ did you do that?! You can't even _see_ them!" I screeched.

She giggled mischeviously. "No, but I can see you admitting to things. All I had to do was plan asking about different people."

"You're an idiot." Nessie sighed from her chair.

"I'm a genious." Alice corrected her. "So, Claire, how long have you liked him for?"

"A while..." I admitted leanning back in my chair as she came at me with the facial goop. She started dabbing it on my face and continued asking me questions.

"Are you gonna tell him?"

"No, he thinks of me as a little girl he takes care of." I snorted.

Alice gave me a pouty look and continued to put the deep aqua crap on my skin. "Well, _I_ think you should tell him. And I know Nessie thinks you should tell him. He might like you back."

"I'm only fifteen." I said, shaking my head a little as she pulled her hand back, now finished with my face.

"And he hasn't grown a day for thirteen years." Alice said seriously.

I gave her a long look, thinking of ways to change the subject. "Enough about this. Nessie, what did you do to make your father so upset on the couch with Jacob?"

"Okay, this I _didn't_ hear about." Alice said, moving to her niece, who was shaking her head with an amused expression at me.

Once Alice was finished painting us and Nessie had completed telling the two of us her juicy story that just got closer and closer to an X-rating every word she said, Alice sat on the corner of the bathtub and brought the subject back to me and Quil. No matter what she said to me, I wouldn't agree to telling him. She looked a little disappointed, but let the subject drop while promising she wouldn't say anything to anyone about it. I believed her. She'd kept secrets for me in the past.

"Now what're we doing?" I asked her when my face was feeling silky smooth. I just didn't want to wake up in the morning and have my face ten times worse than my usual few pimples scattered across my face. Last time Alice had done this to me, I'd woken with a hundred.

"Cookie baking!" Alice yelled up to us, already in the kitchen, even though she'd been standing in between me and my best friend a second before.

"Alice, you and Nessie don't even eat cookies." I said, my tone suggesting her idea was unreasonable.

"Yes, but _you_ do, and I like making them." she said, smiling sweetly at me coming down the stairs, as she jumped to reach the handle of a cupboard above the sink.

**************

**Did you like it? Did I make any mistakes? I didn't go over it as thoroughly as usual so I could get it up sooner, and my computer doesn't have that program that tells you when there's been a mistake, so you guys could review and tell me?**

**Or, you know, just review...? :D**

**Chlowie, xo**


	33. Chapter Thirty Two

**Hello, again! I thought I might update again today, because lately I've been sucky at it, and I want to get to the good stuff in this story quicker. Another reason to why I'm updating quicker thank usual, is because my mother and sister were laughing at me because apparently, 'My mind runs away and my mouth keeps on and on about nothing too important, and I never shut up.' So the two of them made a deal with me, and if I don't talk until midnight, I get ten dollars. So far, it's been an hour, and I've only said three words, but my sister doesn't know...**

**A GREAT BIG thanks to; ****spannieren, asta123pasta, Chickedy-pea, SarahBro1, bookworm1545, SwiftDestiny, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, Ginaaaa, ccthewolf, Amiko-san, MargoPix, twi-nighter, queenybee8289,**** for reviewing and also, to the people who put this story in their favourites lists since last time I updated.**

**Oh, and to ****ccthewolf****; I'm well aware of Quil being sixteen, but thanks anyway. :)**

**Now I'll give you chapter thirty-two...**

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**Chapter 32**

I was so warm...something that I wouldn't really expect while sleeping in a vampire's bed. Nessie and I had stayed in her father's old room, and it'd taken me a while to warm up. It had been so cold.

I froze as I realized the heat couldn't be coming just from me. I could hear someone else breathing, but it didn't sound like it was Renesmee's sensitive voice. It was deeper. A voice I'd know anywhere.

I opened my eyes slowly and looked out of the corners of them, smiling when I saw Quil's face propped up on my pillows. He had his arms wrapped around me, which was obvioulsy why I was so warm. I was sweating a little, too, even though I only had a light sheet on now. He must've taken the thick blanket off me when he'd gotten here, knowing I'd boil with them _and_ his touch.

I was holding his arms tightly to me, but I reluctantly loosened them now and used them to sit myself up properly on my pillow. It had been a tough decision, choosing whether to stay in Quil's unconscious embrace or see what happened to everyone else, but my body decided for me after a few seconds. I kissed his cheek softly before climbing out of the bed and skipping into the hall. Nessie was no where to be seen. She must have left the room when Quil had arrived.

I hobbled into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind me as I loosened my pajama pants and turning, only to jump from Alice standing right in front of me with her arms folded. "He showed up a couple of hours ago. Nessie's been waiting for you so she could have breakfast.

"Alice, I need to pee." I said, ignoring what she was telling me, though not totally blocking it out.

She smiled and left the room, then walked straight back in after a minute, while I was washing my hands in the elegant sink. "I'm doing your makeup."

"Alice, I can do my own--"

"No, really pretty!" she whined, pleading with me.

I shook my head. "It's the weekend. It's not like I'm doing anything special today."

"You have to make an entrance and impress your man!" she said, saying the last part in what I assumed was her sexy voice.

"I don't have a choice anyway, do I?" I asked her weakly. I really did want to look good in front of Quil, even though I knew nothing was ever going to happen between us, but I didn't see the point of going to all the trouble of getting dressed up just to walk around the house with him.

Alice sat me in the chair, gushing that she never had someone with such a tanned complexion to work on. I shut up and fell in and out of day dreams while her voice became an impossibly fast blur behind everything else.

After almost five minutes, she let me stand up and see what she'd done to my face in the big mirror. I smiled up at her. I don't know how she'd done it, but I looked almost completely different to my normal self. I looked...so much _older._ Around seventeen or eighteen. She disappeared for a moment, then was back with what looked like a fairly big shoebox. She put it on the counter in front of me and lifted out a pair of light grey jeans and a long-sleeved top, decorated with an assortment of different things.

"Alice, you really shouldn't have gone to so much trouble for something so little."

"Shut up, Claire. I never have projects now that Nessie's sick of them. Speaking of Nessie...RENESMEE! GET YOUR LITTLE ASS UP HERE!"

Nessie opened the door just a few seconds after Alice had finished her sentence and looked at her, clearly annoyed. "Jake's going to kill you."

"I can take him on." Alice chirped, pushing her down into the chair where I'd been sitting minutes earlier and grabbing her makeup kit. "Or maybe I'll just bribe him with not telling Edward exactly what the two of you have been doing for the last twenty minutes. I know how good you can conceal your thoughts from your father."

"It's not like we were doing anything so bad." Nessie mumbled.

Alice giggled. "But I'm pretty sure Edward wouldn't like watching it."

I smiled at Renesmee and pulled my pajama shirt off, replacing it with the one Alice had given me. It fit me perfectly. She was such a genious! I put the jeans on quickly and stood on the bath tub rim to get a full-length view of myself in the mirror. Alice turned around from Nessie and smiled. "I knew you'd look gorgeous."

"You do have a talent, Alice." I said, hugging her gently. She was at least a thousand times stronger than me, but she never failed to look amazingly fragile. It was just out of habit that I didn't squeeze her as tightly as I might other people.

Alice let us out of the bathroom quicker than I thought she would, but I think it was only because my stomach started grumbling and she didn't want to starve me. I could hear Quil and Jacob joking around in the living room on the bottom floor.

Nessie gave me a look over once, wolf-whistled, then skipped out of the bathroom. I turned slowly, looking over my shoulder into the mirror to get sight of me from all different directions, then gave up as Alice all but threw me from the room.

***

**QPOV**

Nessie hopped gracefully down the stairs, looking a lot more glamorous than usual. Her long curls had been tied up messily, but still had a lot of class. Alice had put natural toned makeup all over her face to make her impossibly beautiful features stand out even more than they already did, and her curvy figure was tightly covered in new clothes I was sure her tiniest aunt had spent at least two hundred dollars on.

She smiled at Jake, then flicked her eyes to me and back before taking a seat on his lap. I looked at her expectantly. "Where's Claire?"

She grinned and tilted her head toward where she'd just come from. I could hear Alice babbling away to Claire, but I couldn't see either of them yet. I smiled when I saw the top of a familiar head of raven black hair. It wasn't in its usual way -- out with just her fringe straightened -- it was all straightened and pulled up, some parts falling free and others flicking up to create a sort of spiky look. Alice had accessorised Claire's black hair with one of those big pink flowers that was sold at every fashion shop these days.

She stepped further out, toward the stairs, the whole time looking uncomfortable at her feet, and I got full view of her to her knees. Her face was done in natural colors like Nessie's, but her eye lashes had been made more chocolatey and longer. She was wearing a perfect figure-fitting cream colored shirt and light gray-blue denim jeans.

I raised my eyebrows as soon as I took it all in. Surely this couldn't be _my_ Claire. Not the little girl I'd taken care of for thirteen years. My Claire-bear still looked like a teenager. _This_ girl looked like...well, pretty close to my age.

I corrected myself almost immediately. Of course this was my Claire-bear. She was the most beautiful person on the planet, and there was no way I could ever feel such bliss while looking at someone other than her. I _needed_ to be looking at her to feel alright.

Jacob nodded, impressed, in my direction as Nessie smiled widely up at her best friend. Claire looked down at the three of us, caught my eye, and looked at her feet again. I could have sworn I'd seen her blush, though I had no idea why she would have. She had no reason to. She was so beautiful.

Alice, a look of triumph jumped lightly from the stair railing to the white carpet at the foot of them and watched Claire walk down them. She turned in my direction, but I didn't see what kind of look she was giving me. I was too busy staring at Claire.

It was as if she'd aged in the last few hours. She didn't look like a little girl anymore. And at the same time, I was sad to have lost the teenage girl I had been looking out for for the past few years, but ecstatic to have gained someone a little older that would most likely share even more things with me. But maybe it was just the way she was looking that had grown up, and not her personality.

Looking back on almost the last year, though, I knew that was wrong. She was so much more mature than anyone else her age. Well, except for Nessie, but she didn't really count. Claire was sensible, and good-natured, and funny and kind and sweet and good-looking and just the most perfect person on the planet. She wasn't anything like the other girls in her year.

She took a seat on one of the arm chairs and looked toward the television, where a _Futurama_ re-run was still playing, even though Jacob and I had abandoned the screen as soon as our Imprints had left the upstairs bathroom. I cleared my throat expectantly and she turned her wide, dark chocolate eyes onto me. "Good morning, Claire-bear."

She smiled and moved to the cushion beside me on the big sofa, bouncing slightly when she hit it. She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a quick hug. "Morning, Quil."

I kissed the corner of her cheek gently, still worried after so many years that I'd hurt her and pulled back, sinking further into the couch. "So...how did Alice get away with this one?" It was a little hard -- trying to act like I normally did around her when I'd just realized she'd changed so much. I kept wondering if I was supposed to act differently around her, too. If I already _was_ acting differently around her.

She grinned and turned her head in Alice's direction, who started whistling and looking out of the big mirrors that covered a majority of the side wall. "Long story." she finally sighed, sinking into the couch beside me.

*******

"Isn't there just the _slightest_ chance of it crashing?!" Claire asked, hysterically clinging to my arm. Nessie rolled her eyes and let go of Jacob's hand to get her ID (one, of course, that wasn't honest) out of her pocket. She handed it to the woman behind the desk and smiled when she handed back her boarding pass.

"Claire, the plane's not going to crash. And even if it did, you wouldn't die. The three of us would make sure of that." I could hardly believe she'd been on a plane before, even if it was only on one trip.

Claire gave her a long look, then gave up. "Fine. But I'm still freaking out."

I laughed and the three of us waited until Jacob had joined us. "How long until our flight leaves?"

"Half an hour." I sighed, checking my phone for the time. Claire stiffened beside me. I wrapped a comforting arm around her, not wanting to see her nervous. "Claire-bear, seriously, it's fine. Nothing's going to happen."

She turned and looked up at me, her face set in that adorable little stubborn way when she wanted someone to see what she was. "You really don't know that, Quil."

"Claire, I've been on planes before."

"But what if _this _one's the one that crashes?" she inquired.

I shook my head and picked her up, wrapping both of my arms around her cold form. "It's not." I murmured, hugging her gently. "I promise you."

She sighed into my shoulder and her arms loosened from around my neck as I bent to put her down. I kissed the corner of her eye and led the way to a bench we could sit on while we waited for our plane to start boarding. Nessiee took Jacob's lap so there was enough room for Claire to reside beside me. She sat slowly and looked at her feet for a few minutes.

"I can't even remember my grandmother..." she mumbled. Oh. That was probably going toward some of the reason of her not wanting to get on the plane.

"I can hardly remember my mother." I said, joking just a little bit.

She smiled and looked up at me. "Yeah, but you choose not to see your. I think it would hurt their feelings a little."

"You don't even know them that well." I said, wrapping my arm around her again and pulling her closer to me as Jacob and Nessie started recieving looks from the people walking in front of them. I kicked the side of Jacob's leg as best I could around Claire, and he broke away from Nessie straight away, looking guiltly toward me.

"Oops." Nessie said in a quiet voice, ducking her head so it was resting on Jacob's shoulder.

"We'll be in California soon." Jacob whispered into her ear.

"Did not need to hear that." I groaned as Claire and Nessie both giggled. Jacob and Nessie's hidden meanings were beginning to come more and more clear to anyone around them, no matter how restricted the two of them were with their...activities.

When the announcement came over that our plane was boarding, Claire stiffened and looked at me with wide eyes. "Crap, crap, crap!"

"It's going to be okay." I laughed, pulling her up from the seat after Jacob and Nessie had joined the line to get on the plane and dragging her over. "You're seated between Jacob and me, so just try not to squeeze the crap out of our arms.

She gave me what she thought was a dangerous look (but was actually really cute), then turned around to face Renesmee's back. The man at the desk checked her boarding pass, then mine, then we were both headed down a hall to the plane we would be sitting on in less than a minute. She reached behind me and took my hand, squeezing it lightly. I squeezed hers back and she slowed down a little so we were walking side-by-side.

"I'm still freaking out." she murmured quietly in a slightly shaky voice.

I chuckled and mussed her hair. "If the plane crashes I'll save you."

"Not boosting my confidence all that much, Quil." she breathed, stepping through the open door of the plane.

I laughed and followed her in, gave the airline hostess a small smile, and took my seat next to Claire at the window. Jacob was on her other side, and he was leaning across the aisle to talk to Nessie who was smiling, not at all nervous. She'd probably been on a hundred planes to exotic islands or something before. Then again, her family probably _owned _a dozen planes.

Claire was bouncing in her seat the whole time we were being showed what to do in case an emergency happened to occur. She gripped the arm rests of her seat when the plane started moving and closed her eyes once we were lined up with the runway.

"Have some gum." Jacob said, handing her a stick before handing me one. "It'll help your ears from popping."

She thanked him and put the gum in her mouth as the plane started moving again and got faster and faster down the runway, until it lifted from the ground. She relaxed and looked over me out the window. "Whoa, that's really pretty."

"See how it's tilted like that?" Jacob asked her in a playful voice, pointing to the wing just outside the window.

"Yeah...?"

"That means we're crashing." he chuckled.

She rolled her eyes and slapped his arm as Nessie shook her head at him.

I swear Claire didn't take her eyes from the window the whole plane ride. I swapped places with her so she could look easier. I was getting a little bored after a while. Nessie and Jacob were deep in a quiet conversation and Claire was paying too much attention to whatever was below us after the clouds had been left in Seattle, so all I had to do was sit there and watch her. I didn't mind much. It was one of my favorite hobbies, anyway.

She turned back to me after another half an hour. We talked for a few minutes, then spent the rest of the plane ride joking around and eating chocolate with Jacob, while Nessie complained about the air service not meeting everyone's 'needs'. Jacob told her she should have smuggled in some blood, and promised to get her some somehow when we arrived in California.

"How long now?" Claire asked me, looking out the window when the sun had set all the way.

I checked my watch. "Ten minutes. Your ears are gonna pop real soon."

She sighed and took another stick of gum, clipping in her seatbelt as the light popped on over us.

She winced with the landing. I winced with her, not because _I _was getting a headache and ear pains from the plane sinking lower and lower to the ground, but because _she_ was. Seeing her in pain was one of the most painful things for me.

"Aw, shit." she murmured once everyone was walking out of the plane. "Now I have to meet my grandmother." I took her hand and led her off the plane, thanking the airline hostess on our way.

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**Was that okay? You can tell me in a review, if you wanna...**

**In the next chapter, I'll be adding in some new characters.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	34. Chapter Thirty Three

**Hello, everyone! Now, I know I told a few people I'd try to get this chapter posted on Friday, but I had to go to my Dad's house, so I didn't get a chance. I'm sorry!**

**And thanks to; ****SarahBro1, queenybee8289, spannieren, bookworm1545, SwiftDestiny, alynawt, MargoPix, Amiko-san, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, Ginaaaa, Shouldna, asta123pasta, leydyan22, lilystarz, steffinaomi90, and Sarah Rudolph for their reviews, and to all of the people who added my story to their favourites or alerts lists!**

******************

**Chapter 33**

**CPOV**

Quil's massive, warm hand around mine as we left the plane was, at the same time, comforting, and making my heart beat at two thousand miles an hour. I still hadn't got over the stupid crush I'd had on him, and I wasn't up to telling him anytime in the nearest century. The idea of him laughing at me and then getting freaked out and not coming to visit me anymore scared the hell out of me.

Okay, I was a completely hopeless school girl with one of those stupid crushes on someone they knew they could never get. Only, mine wasn't on Zac Efron or Orlando Bloom like Sally and Kelsi's were. Mine was on a local guy that spent most of his time with me. And now had his warm arm wrapped around my shoulders as we stepped into the night air.

The temperature outside was a little bit of a shock. I was expecting it to pierce right through me like it had when we were boarding the plane in Seattle. In California it wasn't anywhere near as cold. It was actually pretty warm. Something I was sure would take some getting used to.

"Claire, do you even know who you're looking for?" Jacob asked me, looking through the massive crowd once we were inside the airport.

I shrugged. "She can't look that much different from the photos that're in my living room. And there aren't that many Natives here..."

There were only three I could see. And the shortest one out of them was a very familiar looking, old woman with thick, short, curling gray hair covering her head. She smiled when I locked eyes with her and waved once.

There were two girls standing with her. I could tell from first glance that they weren't as close to full-blood Native American as I was. Their features were more European, but they did have pretty good tans. One of them was a couple of inches taller than the other, and had bleached blonde hair, with black roots that I could only notice if I looked close enough. Her dark blue eyes were more proof toward my theory on being mostly European. Her face looked kind of child-like, though I could tell she was older than me just from looking at her. I guessed she was in her late-sixteens, early-seventeens.

The other had brown hair that was straightened perfectly and layered rather thickly. She was really pretty and didn't have too-dark a tan, one that people could tell was natural and hadn't been gained by spending days in the sun at the type of beach we didn't have in La Push. Her eyes stood out, even though there was a fair distance between us, and were a light greeny color that fit in with her hair and skin color perfectly, though I would have never made that kind of match myself.

Both of them were incredibly gorgeous, and immediately made me feel self-conscious.

"Claire Young?" my grandmother asked once we were just a couple of metres away.

I nodded, unable to help but smile just a little. She smiled back and enveloped me in a big hug, breaking my hand away from Quil's and rocking me sideways slightly. She pulled back from me and smiled warmly down at me. "I haven't seen you since you were this big." she motioned with her hands. "Do you remember your second birthday when I made you that cake with Emily?"

"No..." I said, shaking my head a little. How the hell was I supposed to remember that?

"Oh, well, these are my sister's grandaughters, so they're as good as your cousins. Samantha," she pointed to the shorter out of the two with the brown hair, "And Annalise." she motioned to the taller of the two with the bleached hair. "They're staying with me while you're up. They live in California, too."

"Hey." I said awkwardly, smiling at the two of them. The older one smiled back, but the brunette moved forward and almost crushed me in a bear hug.

"Aw, hey, Claire!" she said loudly in my ear. She picked me up just half a foot from the floor and swung me back and forth a few times before putting me back on the ground. Her enthusiasm made me feel a lot less uncomfortable in front of them. I could already tell that I would be able to get along with her.

I laughed and pulled back after a few seconds. Quil had moved forward a little, and looked like he was just about to rescue me from an unknown danger. I smiled at him a little bit and turned back to my unfamiliar family.

"I would hug you, but I'm sick and I'm not a freak." Annalise sniffed politely. I just smiled in response, wishing I could think of something up to say to them to block the awkward silence like Renesmee always could.

Thinking about that one of Nessie's many talents, I remembered my friends and turned to them. They were just standing there quietly, politely waiting for me until I was ready to introduce them. "Um...this is Renesmee Cullen, Jacob Black and Quil Ateara." I said, pointing to each of them in turn.

Annalise's eyes widened, then her face almost turned a nasty shade of green with very obvious envy as she set them on Renesmee. She shook her head slightly and looked up further, to Jacob and Quil, then back at Nessie. Samantha's eyes flicked straight to the guys and she smiled widely (and a little cheekily) at them both. I sighed and looked to my grandmother, mentally begging her to move the party out of the airport.

"When're we going?" Annalise asked, looking down at my grandmother. She was obviously uncomfortable trying to stare Nessie down. I didn't blame her. I'd never felt perfectly confident while hanging out with my best friend before, either.

We moved to Baggage Claim and waited until out bags came around. Quil grabbed mine for me and wouldn't let me take it myself, even though it had the wheels on the bottom. He carried it out of the airport and put them in the back of my grandmother's car. Seven seats. Whoo-hoo, grandma.

I jumped up into the tall seats and clipped myself in the middle with Quil on one side and Samantha on the other. Jacob and Nessie were in the back next to each other and Annalise had taken the passenger's seat in the front next to Grandma.

The whole car ride consisted of Nessie and Jacob's hushed voices behind me, Samantha joking loudly to anyone who would listen to her, and Annalise singing in a nasily voice to any song that she knew that came on the radio. I wondered how much it was hurting her sick throat. She probably wouldn't be such a bad singer if she wasn't sick.

"Call me Sam." Samantha said to me when we were half the drive home.

I grinned. "You're the third Sam I know. The other two are guys, though."

"It's a good name." she grinned, nodding. "They must be two very attractive people."

I rolled my eyes and went to pull my feet up underneath me, then wondered if Grandma allowed feet on her car seats. I stopped wondering and just dropped them back on the car floor.

"Are you sure you're going to have enough room in your house, Peggie?" Quil asked, leaning forward to talk to her over the radio. My grandmother had ordered everyone to call her Peggie as soon as we had gotten into her car. Or should I say truck?

"No, we'll be one short, but we'll work it out. I have one of those couches that folds out into a bed." she said happily, then changed the subject to something she found more appropriate, glancing at me in the revision mirror. "Claire, you haven't told me anything about you."

"Uhh..." I picked at my nails. I wasn't sure what to say. I hardly knew these people, and I didn't want them to hate me from the little things I said I liked or disliked. Especially if I was going to be staying with them for a few weeks. "I've lived at La Push my whole life, my best friend are the three sitting in the car with us and...my mother's having a baby real soon?" I bit my lip. "Was that the kind of stuff you wanted to know, or...?"

"That was fine." Peggie laughed.

"Now I'll tell you a little bit about me." Sam said, turning her face toward mine with her head resting in her hand against the open window. "I just turned sixteen, my grandmother's Quileute Indian, my mother's half Indian and my father's white. I have a sister, which is the annoying bitch in the front seat, and I like ice cream with cereal all over it." she smirked. "Your turn, Ana."

Annalise sighed from the front seat and turned to face us, turning down the car's radio as she did. "I'm Annalise, I'm seventeen and a half, I'm running for captain of the cheer squad at school and I have one of the worst colds in the history of the world at the moment."

"It just came about this morning, Ana. It can't be that bad!" Sam said, kicking the back of her sister's chair lightly. Annalise turned in her seat to give her younger sister a warning glance, then looked back out her window.

"Your turn, Quil." Sam said, looking over me to my bestest best friend.

Quil thought for a second, then opened him mouth to speak. "My name's Quil Ateara, I'm nineteen years old," (he could pass for nineteen, and he seemed to say he was the youngest people could take him for), "My mother was full Quiluete Indian and my father was half European and half Makkah Indian, I have a younger sister, and I've been working at a CD shop in La Push for the past..." he frowned as he thought it over. "Whoa, it's been years! I didn't realize."

I gave him a sad smile, while Sam moved to Jacob and Renesmee. "Go." she said, pointing to Jacob. He chuckled. "My name's Jacob Black, I have two older sisters, I am engaged to Renesmee Carlie Cullen, and," he paused for a dramatic effect, catching each of our eyes before going on. "I just bought my very own mechanic company."

"No way!" I said, turning around as far as I could in my seat. Jacob hadn't worked for about two years. Alice bought all of his clothes, as well as just about anyone else's she knew, and he ate at the Cullen's. He'd bought his own apartment a long time ago, so he didn't really have anything to pay off. Even if he did need money, Nessie always had some extra (what, with coming from a family of billionaires or whatever they were), and she always won the arguments they had over spending it. Jacob had done a little work with Dowling's a while back, but he'd quit and said he wanted to start his own mechanic business where people would actually find affordable prices.

He nodded, smiling widely. From Nessie's face, I could gather that he hadn't told her, either. She looked ecstatic for him. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quietly after a few seconds.

Jacob wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head. "I didn't think you'd mind that much."

"Wait!" Nessie said, looking back to those of us in the middle row of my grandmother's car. "It's my turn!"

I laughed with Quil, while Sam nodded at her to begin. "Umm...I'm seventeen years old, I live in Forks, the rest of my family lives in the same house as me and I've never been to school before."

"Whoa, how many people live with you?" Sam asked her.

"You've never been to school?" Annalise checked, her eyes narrowed in Nessie's direction.

"I live with my parents, my grandparents and my two aunts and uncles." Nessie said, nodding to Sam. "And they all home school me on different subjects." she added for Ana's benifit.

"That is so cool!" Sam said, turning fully around in her seat so she was facing Nessie with her seat belt strapped across her back. "But doesn't your family keep a really close eye on you and stuff? Like, when you wanna go out and stuff..."

"I don't really go out that much." Nessie admitted. "Claire and I just usually sit at home and watch movies with the guys and stuff."

Sam pouted and gave me an 'are you for real?!' look out of the corner of her eye. "That sounds really boring..."

"We don't really have all that much to do around where we live." I filled in. I wasn't about to have someone who hardly knew me judge me because of how much I got out and about. "It's a really small area. There aren't any big malls or anything for a while."

"Move to California." Sam suggested, then she snorted. "I can't even imagine Ana somewhere like La Push."

Ana put her hand around her seat and flashed her middle finger at her sister.

***

I had seriously thought about going straight to bed when we finally reached Grandma Peggie's house. It was a nice house. There were two stories, and I could tell she loved gardening just from looking at the outside. There were brightly colored flowers hanging from every available space over the concrete, the grass was perfectly cut, the trees were neatly pruned, and there were Lavender bushes growing all the way up the right side of her house. The left side was dedicated to another, long, narrow flower bed that was full of bigger, brighter flowers.

Sam jumped out of the car to let me out and reached for my bags. Quil grabbed them before she could and stuck his tongue out at her. She laughed and ran up the stairs, where I could hear her impatiently kicking the bottom of Peggie's screen door.

"Shut up!" Annalise said as she marched up the stairs. She sniffed and fumbled in her purse for a key. She found it and opened the screen door, nudging Sam in in front of her. I hopped up the stairs after them, with Nessie just behind me. Jacob had taken all of her bags off her and he and Quil were asking Peggie if there was anything they could do to help her.

There were more little shrubs and succulents on Peggie's porch. Little garden gnomes peeped out around pots and shelves and statues and chairs. There was a tiny table with a few assorted chairs around them, and a screen had been placed on the far side of the porch so we could enjoy a simple view of the street while eating.

"This is nice." Nessie commented, walking into the house after Annalise. I had been wishing that I'd taken off my coat as soon as I'd left the car. It was going to take a while to get used to the weather. Not to mention I'd only packed a couple of outfits that would be of use to me here. All of my other clothes were for the colder places of America.

"I wish we'd come during winter..." I muttered to Nessie as she passed me to walk through the door. She gave me a small smile, showing a bit of sympathy for me. She didn't feel the temperature like I did, nor did Quil or Jacob.

"You have such a pretty home, Peggie." Nessie said, smiling widely at my grandmother once all of us were in the house. Sam tilted her head in the direction of a hall and walked off, the four of us following.

"This is where Claire and Nessie will be sleeping." Sam said once we were in a large room with a queen-sized bed. There were a few pictures and posters on the wall. The pictures were of Sam and a few guys, so I assumed this was where Sam stayed while at Peggie's house. Jacob and Quil put our bags on the ground near the foot of the bed once they were in the room. Nessie ran over to Jacob's vacant arms and let him wrap them around her. I subconcsiously stared at them, feeling envious of Nessie. It was enough that she got immortality and inhumane beauty, not to mention a great family, squillions of dollars and a down-to-earth personality, but she also got an Imprint. I would be jealous of her if she'd only had a boyfriend who really loved her, but an _Imprint?!_ That was just the kind of true love two humans could never find. Something I probably never would.

I sighed and sat on the bed, resting my feet on my suitcase. Sam started talk with the others, but stopped when Peggie called them in for dinner.

"Ana, you've gotta eat something, you hardly had anything to eat last night!" my grandmother was saying as we walked into the dining room.

"But I'm sick." Annalise told her. "I really don't feel like food.

"And what was your excuse last night?" Sam asked her, grabbing a plate and dishing up spoonfuls of the casserole Peggie had prepared. "Just because you're running for head cheerleader doesn't mean you need to starve yourself. You're skinny enough as it is. Any skinnier and you'll look anorexic."

"I'm just trying to get the perfect figure." Ana sighed, dishing up a few vegetables. She pushed past Jacob, giving Nessie a dirty look as she did so, and sat herself at the far end of the table. I think Annalise won the award for being the most jealous of Nessie out of all the people I'd met. It was true that Nessie did have the perfect figure, but Annalise was already smaller than her. Nessie had full curves, whereas Ana just looked starved. I didn't know how she did it. I wouldn't give up food just to be a little smaller than I already was.

"As soon as I'd finished dinner I went to bed. Sam had set up a matress on the floor before the rest of us had finished eating, and insisted she'd sleep there. Nessie and I were to share her usual bed. I climbed in, still listening to the other's faint voices at the dining room table. There was a quiet knock on the door after a few minutes and I sat up, to see who it was and at the same time to tell them I was still awake.

Quil walked in slowly, jumping lightly over the bags, spilled clothing and matress on the floor and hopped up onto the bed. "Hey," he said quietly. "Why'd you come in here so early?"

I swallowed and wished he didn't have such great hearing. Surely he could hear how fast and hard my heart was hammering?! I talked loudly, as if I had a chance to drown out the sound. "I'm a little tired, and I didn't feel like keeping up conversation with so many people. Why're you here?"

"Got bored. I'd rather talk to you." he leaned back so his head was resting against the headboard and looked down at me from the corner of his eye. "You can sleep if you want. I don't mind."

"Thanks," I said, laying back on my pillow and rolling away from him so I was more comfortable. And also so he wouldn't be able to see my face. I just didn't want him looking at me while I was thinking about him in ways I knew he'd disapprove of.

After a few seconds, I felt him sink lower onto the bed and roll toward me. He wrapped one of his long, warm arms around me and leaned forward to kiss the corner of my eye. I closed them both as he did so and sighed contentedly. Even though the weather was a lot hotter than what I was used to, I could put up with Quil's arms around me. The night had cooled since we'd arrived in California, but I was still only wearing one blanket to sleep under.

"'Night, Claire-bear." he murmured.

I smiled slightly, not wanting to make too much movement incase he thought I was uncomfortable and moved away from me. "Goodnight, Quil."

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**Was it alright? There's a few more moments between the two of them, that get better and better as they go along, and even though they're a little awkward, they were fun to write.**

**And I know I've said this a couple of times, but there seriously is not all that long to go until they get together. I have it all planned out, and I really hope people like how it happens!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	35. Chapter Thirty Four

**Hellooo, everybody! I'm back to post the next chapter, because I'm being good again and I'm going to try to get them all up quicker. :D**

**And I want to give a GREAT BIG shout-out to everyone who added this story to their alerts list, favourited, or reviewed it, like these people; ****90sgurl, SarahBro1, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, bookworm1545, Chickedy-pea, Amiko-san, spannieren, leydyan22, queenybee8289, lewislahver127, .x aka (sarahr), Shouldna, SwiftDestiny, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes , Ginaaaa, twilightaddict323 and wowza811.**

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**Chapter 34**

**QPOV**

I didn't move for a couple of hours. I just closed my eyes and listened to Claire's breathing. I was tired, but not tired enough to unintentionally fall asleep next to her. I realized Nessie hadn't come in after a while, even though I'd heard the others get up and leave the table in the dining room at least two hours ago.

I concentrated on finding her voice, but didn't recognise it. I could hear Sam's uneven snores from the matress beside the bed. She hadn't said anything when she'd walked in and saw me lying with Claire. I just wasn't looking forward for questions that were sure to come in the morning. Sam had made it clear that she had a pretty up-front attitude in the few hours I'd known her, and this was sure to come up.

I kissed the corner of Claire's eye one more time, watched her beautiful sleeping face for a few more seconds, then climbed out of the bed and walked down the hall, in search for Nessie to tell her she could go to bed. I walked in the direction of the room I was staying in, passing Annalise's room on the way. Judging from the sounds coming from behind the closed door, she was having trouble sleeping. It sounded like she was blowing her nose again -- I'd heard her get up to find tissues about an hour ago.

I was pretty certain I'd found the said hybrid when I got a little closer to my destined room. Jacob was sharing it with me, and we both had our own single bed in there. Neither of us minded too much that half of our legs would be dangling off the end.

I cleared my throat quietly from my side of the closed door. I heard the two of them stop kissing and move around a bit, then opened the door and walked inside.

"You're so lucky you aren't on my bed." I told them, kicking my shoes into the corner of the room and falling onto the matress. I looked at the two of them, a little amused. Nessie's long hair was a mess and her shirt was sliding off her shoulders. Jacob had what looked like makeup smudges around his face, and was giving me a dirty look.

"Sorry for interrupting." I apologised. "But you'll be glad I did when you get home and Edward sees what you were doing."

"We weren't going to do anything I'm not allowed." Nessie promised me.

I grinned. "I'm not sure Jake can hold himself in as well as you can, Ness."

Jacob growled quietly while Nessie jumped up from the bed and moved to the door. "Well, now that my place has been evacuated, I'm going to take it. See you in the morning." she said, blowing a kiss to Jacob and smiling at me before closing the door behind her.

"I seriously wasn't going to do anything." Jacob said.

"Sure, sure." I grinned as I pulled off my shirt.

He sighed and leaned back onto his pillows. I pulled on my pajama pants and climbed into my own bed, not bothering to pull the blankets off it.

"So what were you doing?" he asked, turning his head so he could see me.

"Nothing. I was just watching Claire sleep." I muttered.

"Impatient?" Jacob asked me. I knew what he was talking about immediately. He'd been impatient while Nessie was growing up, even though it had been so much faster than Claire was.

"A little." I said softly. "And walking in on you and Nessie doesn't really help me all that much."

"Do you think she has even the slightest hint that you Imprinted with her? I mean, it's not _that _hard to piece together if you look close enough."

I thought about it for a moment, even though I didn't need to all that much. It was something I thought about a lot. "I think she does, but she overlooks it. She thinks I'd tell her if I had, because everyone else told their Imprints. She doesn't see why she'd be different."

"I think you're an idiot for the reason you're keeping it from her. There's still the biggest chance that she's going to want to be with you pretty soon, but what if she doesn't? You're just going to give her that choice?" he inquired.

"That was the whole idea..."

"It'll kill you if it happens." he promised me. "I can't imagine Nessie with anyone else. It really hurts."

"I freak out evey day that she's not going to pick me." I told him. "What if I'm not the kind of guy she wants? What if I have to stand around and let her tell me how much she loves some other asshole that walks into her life?"

"Tell her." he said seriously.

I shook my head. "I can't help but put her first. I don't want her to sway her options if it's going to make her the least bit unhappier."

"You make me look like a coward." Jacob chuckled. "But I wouldn't keep the idea so close that she's going to pick someone else over you. Have you seen her lately?"

"What?" I asked him, confused.

"She'd crushing on you, Quil." he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's just like the looks you see on girls in movies, or the ones that used to go to school with us. She watches you whenever you're around her, blushes when you do that whole eye-kissing thing. She's fallen for you already and she's not even sixteen yet."

"Sure." I said sarcastically. "I think I might've noticed, Jacob. I watch her every second I can."

"And you haven't seen any changes in the way she acts toward you?" he asked me.

I thought it over. I had seen changes, but it could just be because she was getting older. It could just be because _I_ had thought of _her_ a little differently since I'd seen her walk out of the Cullen's bathroom with Alice hot on her heels after the makeover the crazed pixie had given her. She'd just seemed so much older since then. I wondered if she'd been like that for a while, and I'd just been seeing her how I had before. That was probable.

"See?" Jacob said, obviously pleased with himself. "Stop living in the past."

"Doesn't mean she's old enough for me to become anything more to her." I said bitterly. This whole matter was just going to make me more frustrated.

"Your feelings change at the same time her's do. As soon as she's ready for a stronger relationship between you, you will be to."

"I've already started feeling different things toward her." I admitted for the first time.

"I know. I can constantly hear you thinking about her while we're on patrol together." Jacob reminded me. "It was what made me notice how she acted around you."

"Observant ass." I joked quietly. He snorted. "How long do you think it'll be now?"

"Not long at all." he said. "She'll be sixteen real soon. You haven't changed since you were sixteen, so you're basically the same age. Just because you've lived for longer doesn't made you a pedophile in my books."

"Thanks for the support, man." I chuckled, rolling over and falling quickly into a comfortable sleep, even adding the fact that I didn't fit on the matress under me.

***

**CPOV**

I didn't wake up in the same arms I'd fallen to sleep in. Nessie's arm (still warmer than my own body temperature, but nothing compared to Quil's) was wrapped around my waist. She was breathing delicately into my hair. I wondered when she had replaced Quil as I rolled over to face her.

She blinked a couple of times, waking slowly when she felt our noses touch. She pulled back to yawn, then rested her head back on the pillow, taking her arms from around me to stretch.

"Good morning." she said with another yawn. She seemed to remember something, then checked to see whether Sam was still sleeping on the matress next to our bed. She smiled guiltily for a second, then looked back at me. I strained my ears for any sound of Sam, but couldn't hear anything. She must have been in a deep sleep.

She finished yawning and sat up, brushing hair out of her eyes. "Let's go. I don't wanna stay in here and whisper the whole time."

I nodded and followed after her as she left the room, closing the door behind me so Sam could have a more peaceful sleep. Nessie led us into the dining room, where Jacob and Quil were laughing loudly at something as they ate their breakfast. They both looked up and smiled at us as we entered the room and sat down next to them. Peggie was at the table, too, shaking her head at whatever the guys had said before we entered.

"Morning, Babe," Jacob said, kissing Nessie's cheek when she was comfortably seated next to him. She smiled faintly and leaned into his side. I stared down at the table, glad to be able to look somewhere other than my love sick friends.

"You two want some breakfast?" Peggie asked us. She handed us both a bowl each, and I dished up some cereal, not even noticing what it was.

"Did you sleep well?" Quil asked me, putting a few more spoonfuls of cereal into his bowl.

I nodded and smiled up at him. He smiled back. The whole time butterflies were going crazy in my stomach. Damn it!

"Is Sam still asleep?" Jacob asked us.

"Yeah, we didn't want to wake her. I'm not up to keeping such interesting conversation this early in the morning." Nessie mumbled, placing her bowl on the table without getting anything to eat. She still didn't enjoy all types of human food, but, so Peggie wouldn't be overly curious, she picked up a strawberry from the middle of the table and started nibbling on the end. I didn't blame her for the faint look of dsgust on her face when she started -- I'd never had a special place in my heart for strawberries.

We sat at the table for twenty minutes before a tall figure stepped out from the hall and gave the five of us a sleepy look. "Morning, Sam." Peggie said from the other end of the table.

Sam smiled a little with her eyes still half closed and stumbled into the room, taking her seat next to Nessie with her head almost resting on the table. She looked up at me and cocked one of her eyebrows. Crap. She must have walked in while Quil was with me last night.

"Get something to eat." Peggie ordered her, standing from the table and taking our bowls. She handed Sam a clean one and walked into the kitchen.

Sam grabbed a couple of waffles, poured cereal over the top of one, cut up a banana and spread it across the top, then made a sandwich with the other waffle. She took a bite and chewed it for a moment before looking up at us. "I don't understand what's wrong with you people...it's the summer holidays. You're supposed to sleep in."

"We're all just so excited to be in California!" I said in a slightly sarcastic voice. Quil chuckled next to me. I blushed lightly, only know realizing how much of an idiot I acted around him. That was going to be hard to change...

"I'd still sleep in..." Sam muttered. "I can't believe we have to go back to school soon already." she gave Renesmee an envious look, though I knew it wasn't for the reason Ana did.

"Where's Annalise?" I asked, thinking of her making me wonder where she was.

"Still sleeping." Sam said. "She thinks she's dying, so I assume she's going to be in bed a lot. She likes attention."

"I noticed..." Jacob said so quietly I almost didn't hear. Nessie kicked him under the table, judging by the way he flinched and the apologetic smile he shot her.

"Are you sure she doesn't have some horrible disease or something?" I asked her, a little worried. Ana had spent half the time I'd been with her coughing yesterday.

Sam shook head head. "Naw, she's fine. A couple of her friends had a cold last week, so I think she just caught that. We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later, anyway -- they see each other every fricking day of their lives."

I exchanged a look with Quil and took a sip of my orange and passionfruit juice. I felt his eyes still on me as I turned my attention to Peggie, who had walked back into the dining room. "Are we doing anything today?" I asked her hopefully. I wanted to see as much of California as I could while I was there.

She looked to Sam, who smiled sweetly up at her from her seat at the table. "Sam and Ana organised your first week here, God help us all."

I laughed and looked toward Sam, who professionly leaned back in her chair and inspected her nails. "I _have_ been saving lately. And I know for a fact a few of the guys will be meeting at the mall at twelve..."

"So, it sounds like you had nothing planned." said Quil.

Sam shot him a look and then looked back to me. "Fancy a little shopping?"

"That sounds awesome." I said, pleased that my day was already planned.

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**I know! This one was a little shorter than usual! I'm sorry. I'll be back to put up the 35th chapter really, really soon. I promise! (Sooner if I get reviews off the lovelies reading it!) **

**Chlowie, xo**


	36. Chapter Thirty Five

**Hah! I did it! I fixed it up before sunday! Go me! Whoop, whoop! I had my doubts, because it's my step-sister's birthday, so I didn't know if I'd get it finished or not, not to mention I couldn't be bothered doing anything because of the weather. It's soooo hot! Around one hundred and ten degrees farenheit (yeah, yuck), for anyone who uses it. I think most of the people who read my story do. I use celcuis.**

**Anyway, thanks to the people who added the story to their favourites and alerts, and to the reviewers since I posted the last chapterl SarahBro1, Asha123, Shouldna, steffinaomi90, Paris Lautner, bookworm1545, alynawt, Ginaaaa, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, amiko-san, rennybabee, lewislahver127, spannieren, .x, asta123pasta, lovably17, Chickedy-pea and twi-nighter! You guys're so great! :D**

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**Chapter 35**

I still couldn't get over how fast it took us to get to the mall.

Annalise had refused to get out of bed after claiming she felt like crap, so Peggie had stayed home with her and trusted Nessie to drive her car. The five of us were now travelling way faster than the speed limit permitted to a place only one of us had ever been to before.

"Turn, turn, turn, turn!" Sam said, much too lately for Nessie to do as she was saying. Nessie sighed calmly and turned the car illegally onto the road Sam had wanted to travel down, much too gracefully for the average human teenager to accomplish.

Sam stared out of her window, astonished as she drivers on either side of us stared at the car in wonder and awe.

We drove around the parking lot for five minutes before Nessie was satisfied with a spot to stop. Sam jumped out of the car and led the way inside the overly-crowded mall, chatting excitedly to us the whole time.

We were walking through a large room, dodging people as we went, when Sam let out a surprised yelp, was taken off her feet, and got spun around.

"Put me down, Brodie!" she said, kicking her feet and slapping his arms until she was safetly on her feet. She grinned widely at him and said hello.

"Who're your friends?" he asked, staring Nessie up and down a bit longer than he had the rest of us. Jacob growled quietly beside me.

"This is Renesmee, Claire, Jacob and Quil." she said, introducing us in the order in which we were standing as she pointed us out. "This is Brodie." she told us before turning back to the boy. "Where're the other guys?"

"Krispy Kreme." he said, holding up the paper bag by his side. "We'd agreed to meet you here. They're coming now."

"What'd you get me?" she asked, snatching the bag off him and taking out a doughnut. "Aw, thanks!"

"You owe me." he said, glaring at her as three other people ran up behind the two and tackled them.

"Friggin' hell, Brock! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Sam almost screeched, recieving a few filthy looks from people passing her.

They all straightened up and the newcomers gave us curious smiles. I sucked in a sharp breath as the only other girl in the group studied Quil with her eyebrows raised.

"Renesmee, Claire, Jacob, Quil." Sam said again, pointing to each of us, then turning to her friends. "Nat, Brock, Jack." she nodded, looking satisfied and turned back to us. "You can pick where we go first."

I broke contact with Brodie's eyes and smiled at my whatever-number-she-was cousin. "Can we go to Target or something first? I didn't own the right kind of clothes to bring..." I motioned to the jeans and three-quarter shirt I was wearing while Sam and the others started leading the way to the store.

I walked behind with Quil. Jake and Nessie were just in front of us, their hands tightly connected. I quickly looked away from them. I didn't have to make myself more jealous than I already was.

"How much money did you bring?" Quil asked me quietly, taking my hand.

I looked down at our fingers linked and resisted the urge to sigh. He'd never see us as anything more than friends. "I didn't actually count." I said sheepishly, biting my lip and looking up to him. God, when had it become so hard to act _normal_ around him? I was struggling against almost all of my will, just so I wouldn't start giggling like a freak and flirting in a highly obvious manner.

He obviously saw right through to my struggle. He should've, too. He'd only known me since I started talking. "You okay, Claire-bear?"

"Yeah," I said, sounding a little too obvious. I turned away from him and closed my eyes in disgust for myself.

He chuckled to himself and wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders. My heart rate embarrassingly doubled in rate, and I could have sworn I felt him laughing quietly to himself. _Same as always, same as always! You're always just going to be friends! _I was screaming to myself mentally.

As soon as we'd walked into Target, Nessie ran to a rack of light summer dresses in bright colors. She pulled the corner out of one and looked up at me. "Claire, this yellow would look so pretty with your skin!" she said, bouncing slightly on her feet.

It was a really nice dress. One of the best I'd seen at this store. It had elastic until the bottom of the chest, spaghetti straps in the same yellow material and different patterns around the front, trailing down to the front of the bottom, where it finished just above the knees, made out of the material sewn in unusual ways.

I looked at the tag and shook my head. It was also one of the more expensive items of clothing I'd seen at this store. "I'm just looking for budget things, Ness."

"I'll buy it for you?" she offered.

I smiled and shook my head. "No, seriously, I'm fine. I have a heap of dresses anyway."

She pouted and put the corner of the dress down. "_Fine_, but I'm buying you something while we're out. Alice gave me a couple of thousand extra dollars so I'd make sure you had as much fun as I did."

I laughed and shook my head at Sam, who's eyes had widened at Renesmee's words. "C'mon." I said, grabbing Nessie and Quil's hands and pulling them toward the section of simpler clothes.

Twenty minutes, two t-shirts, three singlets (with the wider straps), and a pair of shorts later we were leaving. We'd thought we had better leave pretty soon, after Brodie, Nat, Jack and Sam started a fight with several rolled up posters in the music section of the store. I asked Sam to come to the bathroom with me so I could change my outfit. I would've asked Nessie, but she and Jacob looked like they were pretty busy behind a rack in a DVD store. Some things were just a little too hard to keep from her father for me. I wondered how she did it.

"You know this is the first time we've actually been alone together?" Sam asked me as I followed her to the bathrooms.

"You know you never fail to make things sound suss?" I laughed.

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the rail on the escalator. "So what's the go between you and Quil?"

"What?" I asked her. Was I that obvious?!

She gave me a look that reminded me _very_ much of the ones I gave people when I was trying to tell them not to act like they didn't know what I was talking about. It was kind of scary, actually. I'm sure Quil would've freaked out if he'd seen it. "Please," she said, flipping her perfectly straight hair over her left shoulder and jumping off the bottom of the escalator. "No one is _that_ close and only just friends."

"I've known him since I was two or something." I said, as if that would explain all of her suspicions.

"No, there's something more than that!" she said, ducking down and pointing a finger at me. "And I'm going to get it out of you one way or another."

Trying to ignore our similarities, even in the stupid little things we did, I shook my head. I have no idea what my face was doing at that time. "No, seriously. Nothing's ever happened between the two of us."

"But are you hoping something will?"

"Sam, he's _nineteen!"_ Soooo not true! I actually still thought of him around sixteen. It eased my mind knowing he'd been so close to my age when he'd stopped aging.

"That's only four years difference." she said, shrugging. "And Peggie told me your birthday's soon, and if I treat you awesomely you might invite me down to see La Push, so that'll only be three years."

"You're just being nice to me so you get a holiday?" I checked.

She smirked. "No, _I only know when your birthday is_ so I _might_ get a holiday." she told me. "I'm just a nice person."

I smiled widely and rolled my eyes at her. "Well, I'm pretty sure nothing's going to happen between Quil and me."

"So you're not hoping?" she asked.

"No..." I wondered if she was as good as telling if people were lying or not as Renesmee was. I knew I was terrible -- at noticing people lying and doing it myself. "Why are you so caught up on knowing?"

"Merely curious." she said, pointing to a sign above a thick door that claimed the area to be the female bathroom. "I'll wait for you. I was a good girl and emptied my bladder before we came."

I laughed once more before pushing the door open and walking in.

***

**QPOV**

I was trying, at the same time, to concentrate on what Nat was saying to me and not snapping the table in front of me in half as Jacob and Nessie sucked face straight across from me. _Why the hell are you jealous?! You'll have that one day. But it'll be better. Because it'll be with _Claire_!"_

_...What if she chooses to be with someone else?!_

_Then you snap his neck and make it look like an accident._

"I could tell the whole time, though!" Nat said, laughing loudly as she brought me back to my physical surroundings.

I laughed with her about whatever she was talking about now and wondered if she'd noticed my eyes glazing over. I hadn't found any interest in anything she'd had to say since she said her first hello to the four of us. If it was Claire spilling out the mindless babble, I'd probably be as interested in it as Jacob looked in Nessie's tonsils at the moment.

"Hey," I kicked Jacob's chair as the sixth mother in the last five minutes shook her head at Jacob and Nessie's choice in activity. This one had something to shake her head about. Her son only looked about five. He didn't need to pick up bad habits from strangers in a shopping mall. Though, Jacob putting his hand up Nessie's skirt wasn't the worse thing I'd caught the two of them doing. I wondered if Nessie telling her father they'd wait until they were married was just to humour him. They hid their thoughts pretty well from him...

"Quil?" I turned back to Nat, who was staring up at me with her chin in her hand, batting her eyelashes. Oh, God. Claire was taking long enough at the bathroom. "What've you got planned for while you stay up?"

"Whatever the others are doing." I said, not wanting to make plans with this girl that I hardly knew. I doubted I'd get along with her even if I did. She reminded me a little bit of Sally. That was just scary.

"Well, you're all welcome to come to my house for a day. I just got a massive pool, and I've heard that the weather in La Push is heaps different than the weather here. If you want to cool down, just come over."

I tried to smile like it sounded like a good idea. _Should I mention the fact that the weather doesn't bother me one little bit?_ "That sounds awesome."

"Hey!" Brodie said, waving over his head in a big motion. I looked up quickly, smiling widely when I saw Claire coming toward me. She was wearing one of her new singlets, but she still had the pair of jeans she'd dressed in this morning on.

She smiled back at me and walked quicker to take the seat next to me. I turned completely away from Nat so it was harder for her to talk to me. I didn't doubt her finding an easy loophole through it, though.

"Hey," she said, swinging her legs off the front of her chair and rolling her eyes at Nessie and Jacob, who had apparently forgotten about my warning and gone back to feeling each other up in the food court. Idiots.

Claire really was growing up. I'd been noticing it heaps today, probably just because of the talk Jacob and I had had the night before. I had to stop treating her like I had years ago. It would probably make me happier. It would definitely make her happier. My parents had treated me like a child until I phased, then I hardly saw them again. Thinking about them made me realize I really should pay them a visit when I got back to La Push. They didn't even know I was in California, unless Marylyn or Emily or someone else on the reservation had told them. That would just make them more pissed at me, though.

"Are you eating?" I asked her.

She nodded and looked toward the boards, showing what was for sale to eat at each food stall. She sighed and looked back to the table. "I have no idea what, though."

"I'll buy you lunch, Claire!" Brodie said from the end of the table. She looked up with wide eyes. I resisted the urge to stand up and punch him in the face.

"I'm buying you lunch." I murmured, standing up as I spoke and walking to the nearest stall.

***

**CPOV**

We'd been walking for hours. We'd been to what felt like a hundred different shops. We'd walked past what I was guessing to be a few thousand people. And Sam hadn't shut up since we left the food court.

"Oh my God..." I breathed, stopping outside the window of a large, very modern-looking shop. On a stand in the window, was a black dress what ended about half-way down its wearer's thighs, with light floral patterns decorating chunks of it. It had a thin, built-in petticoat underneath it and everything!

"Whoa, that's so pretty!" Sam said loudly, punching Jack in the arm as she stopped.

Nessie and I walked into the shop to examine the dress I had spotted from outside the window. "Claire..."

"Oh, it's so expensive!" I moaned, putting my face in my hands. "It's not even worth this!"

"But you like it so much...and I do have extra money with me..."

"Nessie, shut up. You're not buying it for me." I told her stubbornly.

She sighed and turned to walk out of the shop, but stopped when Quil was blocking her way. "You'd look beautiful in this dress, Claire-bear." he said, picking up the tag and checking the price. He gave a small frown. "But I didn't know dresses could get this expensive..."

So we left the shop with my dream dress and started roaming again. Sam didn't stop talking the entire time, so it made it hard for me to talk to my friends. "But, _of course_, Annalise _had _to get in. Just because she's trying for head cheerleader!" she said the last bit in a very girly voice and smiled fakely. "She makes me sick. Not to mention I have my suspicions about losing her virginity while our parents were home..."

"Sam, shut up." Brock said, walking into her and pushing her a little.

She narrowed her eyes at him and straightened up. "She's such a little slut. I wish she'd just get over her fake cold and go home. She's ruining my Summer holiday."

"She's not that bad..." Nat said thoughtfully.

Sam gave her an incredulous look and shook her head. "I feel like I don't know you at all at times, Natalie."

"So how do you like California so far?" Brodie asked me, startling me a little. I looked up, shocked at how close he'd been walking to me without my noticing it.

"I haven't really seen that much of it yet." I said after a few seconds.

He smiled and put his hands in his pockets. Quil looked so hot when he did that... "I could give you a tour sometime this week?"

"I don't know." I said, trying to make it sound like I wasn't ditching him. It wasn't that I didn't like Brodie. I just had the feeling he wanted to be more than friends in the short time I'd know him. I hated guys that just went for looks like that. And I wasn't in a good place for a relationship right now. "I'd just doing what everyone else tells me to do while I'm up here, so I don't think I'll have any spare time."

"Okay. Let me know, though." he said, smiling cooly down at me. I looked toward Quil, who quickly turned his head away from me. Aw, now he probably thought I liked Brodie! Wait -- _getting over Quil, getting over Quil, getting over Quil!_

"Uh...what's your number. I'll send you a text with mine and talk to you while you're back at your grandmother's house."

I gave him my number, wondering if he'd forget about it and not message me. I didn't keep my hopes up, though. He followed me around for the rest of the day like a parasite. I almost asked Nessie to drink his blood, but decided against it. It'd probably just make her more thirsty than she needed to be, and perhaps rise someone's suspicions. It couldn't have been that hard for outsiders to wonder whether Nessie was human or not. Actually, the same could go for Quil and Jacob.

I was so happy to get back to Peggie's car in the afternoon. My feet were aching, my head hurt and I needed some time away from a certain someone. I took my seat in the back between Sam and Quil, while Jacob sat next to Nessie in the front seat.

It was enough that I could practically feel the love from both of them radiating through the car. Worse that they had a minor make out session at every stop on the way back to the house. I sighed and leaned into Quil's arm. It was odd. Usually when I did that he'd wrap his arm around me. He just sat there. That made me feel even worse. I wasn't having the best day.

When we got home I just went back to the room I was staying in and got out a book I'd bought. Even though Quil hadn't said anything to me or made it clear that he didn't want to talk or be near me, he'd made me feel like he didn't want to see me. That was one of the worst things I could think of. God, crushes sucked!

******************

**I hope you liked it! And I hope all of the people in the other countries that're going through **_**winter**_** now are enjoying it!**

**I want an air-conditioner... :(**

**Chlowie, xo**


	37. Chapter Thirty Six

**I'm back again! Did you miss me?**

**Just a quick thank you to all of the people who're keeping me posted. The favouriters, the alerters, and the reviewers, like these people from last chapter; ****Asha123, asta123pasta, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, SwiftDestiny, Amiko-san, bookworm1545, XxsweetcakexX, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, alynawt, Ali-Bear10, Ginaaaa, spannieren, Shouldna, LittleDevilAuthor, MargoPix and weesh.**

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**Chapter 36**

Annalise went home on the fourth day we were in California. Nessie and I then moved into her room so Sam could have her bed back. After one night in Ana's room, Nessie decided she'd sneak into Jacob and Quil's room every night while she thought I was sleeping. That left me to a whole room by myself for my thoughts to go mad and make assumptions that probably weren't even close to true.

Brodie had come to see 'Sam' every day except for two since we'd gone shopping. He'd spent most of his time with me, though. Every minute he was with me, Quil would go all distant and have an urge to desperately talk to Jacob or Nessie or Sam or a stone frog in Peggie's garden. I wondered if he really wanted me to have a boyfriend that badly. That was a downer...

"That new movie comes out on the weekend!" Brodie told me. "We should go see it."

"Naw, it didn't look that good." I muttered, the entire time looking at Quil. I wasn't even worrying about the fact that he might turn around and catch me staring at him. I was just thinking about how horrible it was that he didn't know I had a crush on him and probably thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with the annoying idiot who was most likely commiting some kind of crime by stalking me while on a holiday.

It was even bad at nights, when Brodie had gone home. Nessie was doing something I was sure I didn't want to find out about in Jacob and Quil's room, and Sam decided to visit me while I was lonely. "Hey." she said, jumping onto the bed and crossing her legs. She gave me a thoughtful look for a few seconds (that was the longest I'd ever seen her go with her mouth closed. I swear she had conversations with her imaginary friends in her sleep...), then narrowed her eyes at me. "What is it between you and Brodie?"

I snorted. "Nothing!"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." I said. "Where the hell would you get an idea like that from?"

She did the whole thing where she ducked her head, tilted it to a side and raised one of her eyebrows. _Hello?! She's stealing my trade facial exresssions! _"From watching the two of you. I think he really likes you."

"I don't like him like that." I told her quietly.

She sighed and leaned back on the headboard of Ana's bed. "I thought so. Well, you can tell him."

"Do I have to?" I asked her desperately. "He probably won't even bring it up!"

"Claire, he's my best friend in the whole world. And he's been with a _lot_ of girls. And he's never dumped one of them. He's always been on the recieving end. And you know what _all_ of them have told me's why they ended things?"

"Because he's a crazed stalker?" I joked in a pathetic tone.

"Because he's too serious in relationships! He always picks the ones that just want to lose their virginity to a good-looking guy! You're, like, the first girl he's ever been interested in that hasn't had the same fake personality."

"Sam, nothing could possibly happen between us, anyway. We live on opposite sides of the country!" I said, starting to get worked up. For someone that seemed so careless about everything, she could really put guilt trips on people.

"I know. I just don't want to be the one to tell him that he can't have anything with you. He seems to forget that you won't be around in a couple of weeks." she said, shaking her head at her friend's stupidity. "But seriously, why don't you want anything to happen between you? You seem more uninterested in him that what would you would be for just those reasons."

I shook my head, putting on a face that hopefully told her I had no idea. She frowned, then smirked mischeviously. "You like someone!" she sung, pointing wildly at me. "I knew it! And I know who it is--!"

I leant forward and covered her mouth with both of my hands. "Eww!" I whined, pulling them back and wiping my hands on my pajamas to get her spit off them. "Hey, _I _lick people's hands when they're covering my mouth!"

"What a coinkidink!" she said, sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth. Okay, that was just _too _weird. I couldn't remember all the time's I'd said that exact line...

The was a muffled giggle from outside the door, then Nessie slipped into the room. She turned around and froze when she was Sam sitting with me. "Oh, hey, Sam."

"Sup, Nessie?" Sam asked, nodding her head.

"Nothing much, Cap'n Crunch." Nessie said, jumping from next to the door onto the bed. Sam's eyes widened, but I pretended I hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. "Jacob and I just rang my father!"

"I'm so happy for you, Renesmee!" I said, giving her a painful smile.

She rolled her eyes and held up her left hand, showing off the gorgeous ring Jacob had spent most likely all of his life savings on. "You know how he said I had to wait for another five or whatever years until we got married?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, we were telling him all this crap, and he bought it, and now we're allowed to get married whenever we want!" she said, tears running down her face.

I squealed with her and squeezed her so tightly another human would've gasped in pain. As it was, I did.

"Oops, sorry." she said, letting go of me.

"Congratulations." Sam said next to her. Nessie gave her a hug, too, then sat up, clapping her hands together. "Oh, I am so fucking happy!"

I laughed, partly because I was sure I'd never heard such a dirty word come out of Nessie's mouth before. "Where's Jacob?"

"Howling at the moon." Nessie said in a joking tone, sneaking a glance toward Sam, who was picking blue nail polish off her finger nails. "I'm actually really tired." Nessie said, standing from the bed and grabbing her pajamas from where they were hanging on the chair in the corner. She widened her eyes at me, telling me to take a hint.

"Yeah, me, too." I said, yawning widely and stretching.

Sam looked up, to me, then to Nessie, who was already pulling on her pajama pants. If she'd been paying more attention she probably would've noticed that Nessie was getting dressed a lot quicker than she should have been able to.

"Oh, yeah. Same. Uhh...I'll go to bed now. 'Night, guys." she smiled at us once more before sliding the door shut behind her.

Nessie quickly pulled her shirt over her head and jumped back onto the bed, making me bounce, too. "Oh my _God, _Claire!" she said, taking both of my hands in her excitement and shaking them. "I'm getting married!"

"Nessie, you've been engaged for, like, ever." I told her.

"Exactly!" she said, tearing up again. "I was starting to think it'd never happen!"

"This isn't just about recieving the marriage certificate, is it?" I asked her, frowning playfully at her.

She bit her lip and ducked her head. "Shut up. It's not just about _that_."

"You can't contain youself!" I giggled, leaning back onto my pillows and closing my eyes. I actually was pretty tired.

She collapsed next to me and rolled over so she could look at me properly. "I just want something really special to happen between us. Not that the kissing isn't absolutely brilliant. I don't know..."

"You're so in love with him you want to be as close to him as you can be." I finished for her.

She nodded eagerly. "Exactly."

"So where is Jacob?"

"Oh, he isn't actually howling at the moon...well, I don't know that for sure. He ran out of the back door, over the fence and into the distance. He's probably gone to find a really privet spot so he can phase and tell everyone that Dad's letting us get married." Nessie smiled widely again and sighed to herself. "This is the best night of my life."

I smiled and pulled my hair out from underneath my neck. I was so close to falling asleep...

"Claire, what's been bothering you?" she asked quietly after a few seconds of silence. She was talking so lowly I knew Quil wouldn't stand a chance of hearing, unless he was right outside the door. Nessie'd know if he was or not, though.

"Quil's seeming kind of distant since we've been here." I told her in a whisper.

She gave me a sympathetic smile brushed my fringe away from my face. "I think I know why." she said, still being so quiet I had to strain my ears to hear her. "He probably thinks you like Brodie. And I know he wants you to be happy. What kind of best friend would he be if he didn't want that?"

"But I don't!" I said, getting a little annoyed at this whole subject. "And even if I did, it wouldn't mean that he had to stay away from me!"

She shrugged and tapped my nose. "Still in our little crush for our best friend, are we?"

"Little?" I snorted. "Argh, this sucks so much!" I put my face in my hands and rubbed my eyes a couple of times.

"It was bound to happen some time." she said softly. "You just spend so much time together..."

"But I feel like we've been drifting further and further apart since I realized." I said hopelessly. "And I don't want him to just stop seeing me. He's one of the most important things in my life."

"I know, Claire." Nessie said, kissing my forehead. "And he loves you that much, too."

"He couldn't." I sniffed.

"I don't think he's ever going to leave you alone." Nessie told me. "You'll probably be just as close as you always were when we get back to Washington."

"I hope so." I said sourly.

She grinned and turned the lamp off behind her. "You're tired. And Sam said we're going to Nat's house tomorrow. We're probably going to have to do a lot of screaming and carrying on. Go to sleep."

I chuckled and closed my eyes, sinking further into my pillows. I felt so relaxed already. "Goodnight, Ness." I said.

She rolled over and wrapped her arms around me, comforting me. "'Night, Claire."

***

**QPOV**

A week. A whole fricking week. That's how long I contained myself from spending as much time as I wanted around my Claire-bear.

It just made it worse that the stupid son of a bitch who thought he could take my life away from me kept coming back. Jacob thought I was over-exaggerating.

"Well, what would you do if someone was spending so much time with Nessie?" I inquired. "Someone _her age._ Someone we could tell had the hots for her."

Jacob chuckled. "I doubt someone Nessie's age would be so caught up in wanting to get in her pants. At twelve years old, there's rarely even any kissing involved."

"You know what I mean, Jake."

"I'm sorry." he said, still grinning. "And you're right. If someone was that obsessed with Nessie that he came around every day just so he could talk to her, I'm probably consider tearing his head off."

"I've considered worse..." I murmured.

He smiled widely, laughing silently.

There was a quiet knock on the door. We already knew who it was without her coming in. We would've been able to hear the footsteps if they'd been anyone other than Nessie's.

She opened the door quietly and tiptoed into our room, jumping up on Jacob's bed. "Alice just sent me this message." she said, showing him the screen of her phone.

Jacob's brow furrowed in confusion as he read aloud the message. "'Now's a good chance to ring your father. He's in a pretty good mood, so he'll consider the answers to any questions you have, *wink wink*.'...Ah, I knew the pixie'd lose it someday."

Nessie giggled and pushed him with one of her hands. "No, she's telling us that he's going to answer with what we want if we ring him now."

"How does she know? She can't see anything while you're with me, can she?"

"Maybe she saw Edward during the phone call." Nessie offered, staring at her phone, which had now gone blank. "Wanna take a guess at what we're asking for?"

"Well, if it's to get a new puppy, I'm sure he'll be pretty open about it. Especially with how well the last one went." I chuckled as Nessie flinched. Emmett's strength and puppies didn't mix. Thank God it went to a good home after that. It still hurt me to think about it, even when I was in my human form and didn't have a tail. Well, the puppy doesn't either now...

"Shut up, Quil, you sick moron." Jacob said, shaking his head as his face was screwed up in pain.

Nessie smirked and seated herself on Jake's lap. "No, it must be something that we're always pestering him about or something."

"Driving his Astin Martin?" Jacob asked blankly.

"Oh, yeah, because that's my dream and all..." Nessie rolled her eyes, then they widened as she sat up. "I know what it is!" she sung, already dialing.

"What?" Jacob and I asked at the same time. She held her finger up and smiled sweetly at the wall.

"Hello, Daddy!"

We could hear Edward's voice from the other end of the phone. _"Hey, beautiful. How's California?"_

"It's so much fun!" Nessie said happily, leaning into Jacob's chest.

I resisted rolling my eyes. Nessie wouldn't have a clue toward how great California was. She'd spent most of her time with her eyes closed and her face meshed against Jacob's.

_"How're Jacob, Claire and Quil?"_ Bella's voice asked from the other end of the phone.

"Hey, Momma. They're great, too." she said. I picked up on the completely innocent tone in her voice. Surely they'd know that she was trying so hard. "Um, Daddy, can I just talk to you for a second."

_"Sure, Nessie. What's up?"_

"You know how you said you wanted me to be seventeen before I married Jacob...?" Jake clapped a hand to his face and shook his head into it.

_"...Yeah..."_ Obviously Edward already knew where she was going with this. I'd assumed he'd wait until she was finished to make any assumptions.

"Daddy, I'm as close to an adult that I'm ever going to get." Nessie said responsibly. "I should be responsible for my own actions, don't you think?"

_"Renesmee, we've talked about this --"_

"But you don't think it through properly!" Nessie said, struggling not to raise her voice. "Dad, I'm basically older than you. I've known Jacob for my whole life, so I know there's not going to be anything that could push me away from him after we _do_ get married, and if you keep telling me to wait until you think I'm old enough, it's going to be a hell of a lot longer than your engagement with Mom was!"

_"But, Nessie, that's not the only thing in the picture."_ he debated.

Nessie laughed breathily into the phone. "Dad, I'm pretty sure I know what I want or not. And I _am_ able to take care of myself. And Jacob's no where close to hurting me or disagreeing with what I want."

_"Nessie..."_ Edward's voice didn't sound all that uncomfortable, when you considered he was disgussing his daughter's sex life with her.

"Dad, you've told me a million times before you're proud of me because of how responsible I am." she reminded him. "I'm not going to run off and be stupid like you and Mom were --"

Jacob uncovered his eyes and gave Nessie a furious glare. I knew where he was coming from. Probably not the best idea for her to call her parents stupid while she was trying to get something her father already hated the idea of.

_"We didn't know that could happen!" _Edward defended himself, cutting her off. _"And with all the years that've gone past since it happened, it doesn't look like a bad thing at all. If I had to, I'd have it happen again, just so you could be in our lives."_ his voice sounded strained, and I knew it was because of the thought that Bella would go through so much pain like last time. It'd even been almost horrific for me, just reading the memories though Jake's head.

"Please, Daddy?" Nessie asked quietly. "I love him as much as I'm ever going to be able to, and you know how much I want to marry him."

Edward's voice disappeared from the other end of the phone for about a minute. None of us said anything. We just kept staring at it in her hand.

_"I'm not going to make your decisions from now on, Nessie, unless it's so stupid you need to wake up. You can marry Jacob anytime you want, after you get back to Forks."_

Nessie burst into tears while I widened my eyes in shock. Jacob stared blankly at the wall, looking like a statue. "Thank you so much, Daddy!" Nessie blurted into the phone, her voice going all high as her tears ran down her face.

Edward's voice was so quiet I had to strain myself to be able to hear him when he started speaking again. _"Just...can you plan the wedding out a little more than nessacary? I'm still not fond of the whole idea."_

"I'm pretty sure Alice will take some time, making it the best wedding ever." Nessie sniffed happily into the phone.

_"Yeah. Right."_ Edward muttered, sounding a littlle slow.

"Bye, Daddy." Nessie said into the phone softly. "I love you."

_"I love you more than anything else in the world, Renesmee. I'll see you soon."_

The phone went dead and Nessie closed it, staring at her hands for a few seconds. She looked up slowly and turned to Jacob, who hadn't moved since her father gave them the okay. "I know I should be feeling amazingly guilty right now, but I'm not." she said, locking her arms around Jacob's neck and burying her head into his shoulder.

He blinked a couple of times, then wrapped his arms around her, so tightly it'd crush a human. She pulled her face back and kissed him so roughly I looked away to give them more privacy.

They broke apart after about a minute. "Oh my God!" Jacob said loudly. "We're getting married!" he brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her quickly. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"I told him exactly what I was thinking." Nessie said through her tears.

The two of them sat there for about ten minutes, hardly saying anything to each other as they hugged tightly and kissed. And not even the kisses they usually give each other, which last for minutes and a lot of exploring of their hands. Just quick kisses, through which they told each other so much.

I considered leaving the room several times, but I didn't want them to see it as rudeness.

When they had finally stopped being all mushy and made progress in catching up on themselves, they sat in silence, staring at each other for a few seconds. Jacob suddenly jumped off the bed, causing both Nessie and me to jump.

"I've gotta tell the guys!" he said, racing out the door. We heard the back door of the house open and close, not as quietly as we had been acting before.

Nessie and I sat in silence for a moment more, before she climbed off the bed, too and walked back toward the door. "I should tell Claire." she said, unable to hide the excitement in her voice. I nodded and watched her go. When she was gone, I fell back onto my bed and stared angrilly at the roof.

Jacob and I were the same age. Claire was older than Nessie. It just didn't seem fair that Jacob was getting married before anything had even happened between Claire and me.

If anything ever did.

The negative thoughts invaded my head again and I closed my eyes, sighing heavily. _It'll happen._ I told myself. _Jake said she's crushing on me already. That has to be good. Claire doesn't fall for just anyone._

I held onto that thought, trying to block out any other negative thoughts that were trying to ruin what little happiness there was in me in that moment.

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**Is everyone okay with how it's going? I thought it was about time Jake and Nessie went to the next level in their relationship.**

**And before any of you leave me a dirty comment about it;- Nessie only said that about Quil wanting Claire to get with Brodie, because she knew how pissed Quil would be with her if she ruined his plan. And she also understands what he means by the whole thing. I'm sorry I haven't been explaining some things as much as I should be!**

**So, yeah. Review, please! It makes me smile so widely it looks like my mouth's been stitched up.**

**Chlowie, xo**

**P.S; Happy Australia Day! :D**


	38. Chapter Thirty Seven

**Hey, I'm back with another chapter before I leave for my dad's house... :'(**

**Thank you to all of the wonderful people who've added my story to their favourites and alerts lists since I posted the last chaper. Thank you also to these people; ****Amiko-san, MissEmbryRocks, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, Asha123, asta123pasta, bookworm1545, spannieren, Ginaaaa, SarahBro1, alynawt, LittleDevilAuthor and allgirlsloveavampire, ****who took the time and reviewed for me! :)**

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**Chapter 37**

**CPOV**

I was woken in the morning by Sam squeezing my nose.

I gasped and sat upright, knocking off her hand. She sighed and fell onto the bed next to me. "I was hoping you'd breathe soon." she said in a relieved tone.

"And what if I hadn't?" I asked her. "You could've killed me!"

"Aw, but I'm so innocent the police wouldn't find me guilty and I'd get to stay here like normal." she said, batting her mascara-thickened eyelashes at me.

I rolled my eyes and pushed her off me as I tried to climb out of the bed. "Where'd Nessie get to?" I asked as I stretched.

She shrugged. "Behind a public bathroom with her clothes hanging from a tree with Jacob, I'm guessing."

"They're not allowed to sleep with each other." I defended my friends.

She raised an eyebrow. "They're like, twenty."

"Nessie's family is _very_ old-fashioned." I said, walking to the bathroom. Sam followed me in and stood there as I washed my face.

"Thank God it's Nessie and not Annalise. I swear she used to be with a different guy every fortnight."

"That's kind of gross..." I mumbled uncomfortably.

"Yeah, well, she thinks it all comes under the title of 'cheerleader'. That's why she's running around with black roots and blond hair."

"Is she really that much of a bitch?" I asked her, wondering if I was offending her in any way by talking about her only sister like this.

She shook her head. "Naw, she just gets really jealous. That's why she was acting so bitchy around all of you."

"Jealous of Nessie's looks?"

She shrugged. "Nessie's looks, your connection with Quil. She's in her longest relationship so far with the only guy she's really liked, and she's constantly parranoid that he's cheating on her, just because he's one of the most popular guys in our school."

"_Is_ he cheating on her?" I asked. Even though I hadn't properly talked to Ana before, I was still interested in hearing about what was going on with her. If I saw her again before we went back to La Push, I might try to get to know her a little better.

Sam snorted. "No. Alex is head-over-heals for her. Don't ask me why, though. He's probably over at my house trying to make her feel better while our parents are working right now." she stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth. "That isn't a pretty picture..."

"Aw, I didn't think I was _that _ugly." Quil said, walking into the bathroom in his pajama pants and an old t-shirt and grabbing his toothbrush. He bent down to kiss the corner of my eye, then went back to brushing his teeth.

I smiled to myself. It was the first time in days he'd kissed my eye. And it sent an explosion of butterflies into my stomach. He looked down at me in the mirror, and I wondered if it was because my heart rate had picked up so much. I blushed and grabbed a washer, drying my face off.

"What've we got planned for today?" Quil asked Sam.

She lifted up her hand and sniffed her under-arm playfully. "It's going to be a really hot day, so we're going to Nat's house for a swim. You were the first person she invited. I'd feel ecstatic about that, Quil." she said.

He rolled his eyes as he brushed his teeth and aimed a gently kick behind him in her direction. She danced out of the way and into the hall. "Let's get some breakfast, Claire." she said, grabbing my hand.

I smiled at Quil as I was pulled from the bathroom and met Peggie in the kitchen, with Nessie, who was babbling at top speed (for a human) with someone on the phone.

"No, seriously, that's just too over-the-top. I just want one like Mom's and Dad's was. It sounds like it was really romantic..." she frowned at the cupboard as whoever she was speaking to started talking again. "No, I don't _want_ a jazz band. Frigging hell, Alice!"

That explained it. Alice had probably posted labelled diagrams all around her own and Nessie's room, outlining every little millisecond of the wedding. I was slightly surprised she hadn't called Nessie earlier to discuss things with her.

"Okay, then. Get Rosalie to play." she said, then paused. "Not _exactly_ like their wedding, Alice!" she put her face in her hand and started pacing up and down the kitchen. "Listen, we haven't even set a date yet, so can I get back to La Push, then I will talk to you in person about it, where I can also slap you across the face if you say anything stupid like that again. Yep. _Thank_ you." she smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. "Okay. Love you, too, Al. See you soon." she shut her phone and sighed, letting her head fall back. "She's even annoying when we're in different parts of the country..."

"I want to meet this Alice." Sam said thoughtfully, jumping up onto the bench and opening the cupboard.

Peggie slapped her ass as she was walking out of the kitchen. "Don't walk around on my cupboards again, Sam."

"Don't sexually abuse me again, Peggie." Sam shot back. I grinned at Nessie, who caught a couple of boxes of cereal that Sam threw down at her.

"Yum!" Sam sung, grabbing three bowls and sitting at the table, where there was already a carton of milk.

She poured three bowls of cereal, then pushed two in front of us. Nessie looked down at hers in disgust and I started eating. Sam stopped stuffing her face and studied Renesmee. "Are you anorexic?"

"No!" Nessie laughed.

"You never eat. I mean, I haven't seen you eat since you've been here, and you're usually with me while we all eat."

Nessie looked at her cereal and spoke. "I've just been feeling off. You know how you start to get sick and you don't feel like eating?"

Sam nodded. "I hope you're not getting what Ana had. She looked terrible.

"I'm telling her you said that." Quil said as he walked into the room and took Nessie's bowl from in front of her. "Jacob's still asleep, Nessie. But he said he'd take you out to get your favorite food tonight." he winked inconspicuously at her.

"What's your favorite?" Sam asked interestedly, obviously just keen in keeping conversation.

"McDonalds." Nessie said smoothly. "I haven't had it for months. Jacob'll probably be taking me there for a private meal to celebrate." she said before Sam could plan for us all to have dinner there.

I stared longinly at the beautiful engagement ring on Nessie's left hand. And not because I wanted the money to be able to afford something like that (Alice had put in most of the money for Jacob to be able to afford it). It was because of the Imprint between Nessie and Jacob. The one thing I wanted most in the world. I sighed and looked at the table, hoping for the billionth time that I would get one. The only thing that would be bad about it would be losing such a close friendship to Quil, not to mention the major crush I had on him. Actually, that wouldn't be that bad. I'd still spend time with Quil, no matter what. It would be a whole lot easier to act myself around him if I didn't have a pathetic crush on him.

I only finished half a bowl of cereal. I wasn't in the mood for it. Breakfast had the worst choice of foods out of the three meals of the day.

"Get your swimmers on. You'll need them." Sam said, smiling mischeviously as I walked toward my room to get changed.

I put the swimmers I had brought up on. They had been my mother's, but she hadn't had any use for them in La Push, so she'd given them to me. I doubted they'd fit her for a while, and not just because she was pregnant. They fit me perfectly, and I loved the idea of so much padding in the top. In the swimmers I'd previously owned, you could tell how flat-chested I was. I was still growing though, I kept telling myself. And I didn't look that flat when I was standing by myself. It was just when I was standing with Nessie...

I pulled a singlet and my jeans on over my swimmers. I'd probably be sweating until I got my jeans off, but I wasn't use to wearing shorts, and I was a little uncomfortable in them still, even though a lot of people had told me I had no reason to be uncomfortable in them.

I put my phone, boardshorts and sunscreen in my shoulder bag and left them at the door of Ana's room. Quil and Sam were still eating when I got back to the dining room. Nessie was staring lovingly at the gorgeous engagement ring on her third finger.

"When're we leaving?" I asked, taking the seat next to Quil.

"As soon as the other lovebird gets up." Sam muttered, pouring yet another bowl of cereal. Jeeze, that girl could eat! I came so close to asking her if she was a shapeshifter, but I stopped myself. Her skin was a normal temperature, and the question would just get her questioning my sanity. Oh, and Nessie and Quil would probably want to kill me.

"I'll go get him." Nessie murmured, standing from the table and walking quickly into the hall. I took a seat, in the know that the wake-up call Jacob was about to recieve wouldn't be as short as the rest of us hoped.

"How's she going to wake him up?" Sam asked, smirking at the thoughts running through her head that I didn't feel like delving into.

"She probably won't block off his airway." I said, playfully giving her a stern look.

She grinned and upended her bowl, drinking the milk in the bottom of it. "Well, it's been lovely, folks, but I think I'm going to put my swimmers on now." she said, walking from the table as well.

So it was just me and Quil.

And it was kind of awkward.

"Are you swimming?" I asked him, hoping he'd answer with a few more words than he'd been giving me lately.

"Yeah." he chuckled. "Who else is gonna throw you in?"

"I wouldn't put it past Sam." I murmured.

He laughed and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into him. Okay, not so awkward anymore. Pretty nice, actually.

"Is Brodie going today?" he asked after a few seconds.

Where the hell did _that_ come from?! "Uh...I don't know. I guess. I think the whole of Sam's group's gonna be there."

He sighed, and was about to say something when Nessie dragged Jacob into the dining room and poured him a bowl of cereal. "We're going to Nat's house today." Nessie said, seating him at the table and perching herself on his lap. "So you need to get your swimmers."

Jacob nodded, looking down at the table tiredly. He yawned widely, then put a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. I smiled sympathetically at him. Poor Jacob. He'd probably only gotten to bed about an hour ago after telling everyone he could that he'd be getting married a lot sooner than anyone thought.

Sam skipped back into the kitchen and took her seat again after a few minutes. I could see the straps of her bikini over her singlet. Stupid Sam and Nessie with their perfect figures...

She watched Jacob eat for a few seconds, then stood up and took his bowl off him. He started to protest, but she just shook her head and put it in the sink in the kitchen. "You can eat when we get to Nat's house. I'm hot. I want to go swimming."

He groaned and rubbed his eyes, then walked slowly into the room he was sharing with Quil to get changed. Quil unwillingly left his seat at the table to do the same.

"Do they have six packs?" Sam asked quietly.

Nessie and I nodded. She smiled widely. "Thought so. They don't wear shirts when they swim, do they?"

"Sam, we live in Washington. Do you think we go swimming all that much?" Nessie asked her instead of answering her question.

"Fair point." Sam sighed, putting her feet on the table in front of her.

I grinned at Nessie. We'd seen Jacob and Quil swimming heaps of times. I had just never joined them. On the rare occasions when the sun was out long enough for us to spend the day at First Beach, I was usually still wearing a few layers and tightly wrapped in a blanket. And no, the guys didn't wear shirts while swimming. Which kept me perfectly preoccipied when sitting on the beach by myself when Nessie decided she wanted to swim too.

"Good." Sam said, satisfied when the two of them showed up again with their board shorts on. Too bad they were both wearing t-shirts with them...

"How long will it take to get to Nat's house?" I asked her. Peggie had vanished somewhere in her big house, and I didn't know if Nessie had permission to drive her car again.

"She only lives two streets down, so about five minutes." Sam said, skipping to the front door and holding it open for us. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." I retorted, walking out in front of her and waiting for them at the bottom of Peggie's stairs.

It took about ten minutes to get to Nat's house. Probably just because Sam took her shoes off halfway there and kept stopping to take things out of her feet.

"Why don't you just put your shoes back on?" Nessie complained, throwing her head back in frustration.

"Because I've never walked all the way to Nat's barefoot without getting something from the grass in my feet." she winced as she pulled something else out of her toe.

"And you haven't proved the Weed Gods wrong in this case, either." Quil said as Jacob grabbed her shoes off the ground in front of her and tossed them to her.

"Just put them on." he said, grabbing Nessie's hand and continuing to walk in the direction of Nat's house.

Sam sighed and caught up with us. "It's because Claire took my good shoes." she said quietly.

I rolled my eyes and swapped her flip-flops. She smiled and skipped ahead of us. "We're only a few houses away!" she sung.

Nat's house was even bigger than Peggie's. I wondered if it was just because all the houses on the Reservation were unbelievable tiny that every house in California shocked me.

"Just go through the back gate. I'll get some junk to eat." Sam said, opening the front door and pointing around the side of the house.

Nessie led the way to the side gate and stood on her toes to unlock it. Pushing it open, she revealed a large pool that was nicely decorated. It had a slide and everything. Nat and Brock were dipping their feet in the water and talking quietly, but looked up and smiled at the four of us as we filed into Nat's big backyard.

"Hey," she said, standing up and walking over to greet us. I immediately felt less self-conscious. She was half-way between thin and curvy, like me. Thank God she wasn't as thin as Sam and Nessie. I envied them every time I stood with them. "Just put your towels over the railing. There's food on the table, and I have no doubt that Sam's in my kitchen helping herself right now..."

I grinned and nodded as she rolled her eyes and sat back next to Brock. She kicked her feet a few times and turned back to him, giggling a little. We put our towels over the railing of her fence as she had instructed and looked over, alarmed as she let out a loud scream.

She broke the surface of the water and coughed a couple of times, making gulps of water come back out of her mouth.

"I'm going to kill you, Brodie!" she screeched, kicking after Brodie, who had just pulled her in from under the water. He laughed and swam away from her, nodding at me as he did. I smiled back, noticing the filthy glare Quil gave him. Well, he'd known me all of his life. He was sure to feel a _bit_ protective over me.

Nessie pulled off her shirt and shorts, revealing a very nice swimsuit Alice had probably spent a few hundred dollars on. She waited until Jacob had his shirt off and pulled him toward the pool, jumping in with him and narrowly missing Nat who was still swimming furiously after Brodie.

I narrowed my eyes at her perfect body and suddenly didn't feel such an urge to dive in after her anymore.

"Sunscreen." I stalled, grabbing the bottle from my bag and putting a small amount in my hand. I was rarely in the sun, but even when I was I didn't usually bother with sunscreen. Now seemed like a good time to waste a few minutes, though, so I started rubbing it into my face.

"Do you really need that?" Sam asked, walking out of the back door with a box of cookies and some crackers and dip. "Aw, crap! My mascara's not waterproof!"

"This should be good, then." Brock said as she put the food on the table. He grabbed her and jumped in with her as she desperately tried to kick herself free.

I laughed with everybody else, then pulled my hair over my shoulder and attempted to rub the sunscreen into my back. Quil laughed at my pathetic ability to do so and grabbed my hand, taking the remaining cream off my palm and into his own massive one.

"Thanks." I said softly as he smeared it into my shoulders.

He didn't say anything back. And yes, I was well aware of the suggestive looks Nessie and Sam were giving me. I wish they'd grow up. I just wish I hadn't noticed the look Brodie was giving Quil. I hoped I didn't need to have that talk Sam was telling me about with him. And I also hoped Quil didn't pick up on my heart fluttering as fast as a hummingbird's wings.

Once I was feeling very greasy and sun-protected, I kicked off Sam's flip-flops and left them in a pile with the clothes I had worn over. I walked cautiously to the pool, hoping it wouldn't be too cold.

I didn't even get a chance to dip my toes in to feel it. Quil scooped me up from the side of it and held me tightly, so I didn't stand a chance of getting out of his grip. Not that I wanted to or anything...

"Do you want to get thrown in?" he asked my slyly.

"No, I want to get in by myself!" I whined, knowing perfectly well that I didn't have a say in it whatsoever.

He chuckled and jumped, holding me until we were in the water. I broke away from him and kicked myself to the surface, gasping from the temperature of the water. "You asshole." I said, my teeth chattering.

He laughed and splashed a small wave of water into my face.

******************

**How was that? Just a bit of a change to what usually would happen if they'd stayed in Washington. Also a chance for all of you to imagine Jake and Quil without their shirts on and dripping from the water of the pool...yes please!**

**Well, I hope you liked it. I'll have the next chapter posted on Sunday, hopefully. You know it'll be up quicker if I get a heap of REVIEWS!! :D**

**Chlowie, xo**


	39. Chapter Thirty Eight

**Hey, guys! I was supposed to get this chapter up yesterday, but I couldn't get around to it, so I'm sorry for that, but you get it now! :)**

**Thank you to these fantabulous people; ****allgirlsloveavampire, Asha123, HeyI'mSarah, .x, LockDown, alynawt, Chickedy-pea, KatieJoanna, bookworm1545, spannieren, Ginaaaa, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, Amiko-san, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, asta123pasta, SwiftDestiny, MargoPix, Yumi Stern, queenybee8289, leydyan22 and stormphenix on da, for reviewing, and another thank you to the people who added my story to their favourites and alerts list.**

**I would also like to say sorry for putting the word 'swimmers' in my story. I thought everyone used that word, but I was told different. I am really, really sorry. Australians say swim suit and bathing suit, too, but mostly swimmers. I'm really trying to be American while I'm writing this! Trust me.**

******************

**Chapter 38**

**QPOV**

The day at Nat's house would've been fun. If a certain jerk hadn't been there.

Jack showed up two hours late, so Brodie didn't have anything to do but to stare at Claire for the whole one hundred and twenty minutes. He didn't even gather anything from the filthy looks I was giving him. I mean, I knew he was an idiot and everything, but people had run from those looks before!

Jacob and Nessie decided to retreat to the cave that Nat had in her pool, so I was left with nothing to do than watch Claire. Which was one of my favorite things to do, anyway, so I didn't mind.

"What?" she asked me, stopping in front of me.

"Nothing." I said. She raised an eyebrow, but gave up.

"We should've brought a camera with us. Sam's cracking me up."

I looked over to Sam, who was laughing at something Jack had said. She looked like a raccoon, with her eyeliner and mascara running all around her eyes. I assumed she'd forgotten all about it and no one was nice enough to remind her. She'd definitely have it all washed off if she'd remembered.

"Where's Jake and Nessie?" Claire asked me, bringing my full attention back to her.

I laughed. "Just...don't go into the cave for a while, and your innocence should be spared."

She laughed, too, but stopped and let her eyelids drop in annoyance as Brodie decided to break up our little talk. "Hey, Claire." he said, standing on his toes to keep his head out of the water. I smirked. I was flat on my feet, and out of the water from my chest up. Claire was kicking her legs to keep her head up, but I wasn't into ripping her off.

"Hello, Brodie." she said politely, moving out a little to see him better. "How've you been in the last three minutes?"

"Pretty good, thanks." he smiled. Wanker.

I chewed the inside of my mouth for a few seconds, debating on whether or not to 'accidently' crush him while bombing into the pool.

"So what've you got planned for the rest of your stay in good old California?" he asked her.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "I have no idea. I think we're going out for dinner sometime next week, but that's all anyone's said."

"That's cool." he said. He was uncomfortably silent for a few more seconds, then swam back in the direction of his friends as they all burst into laughter.

Claire turned back to me, smiling as if nothing had happened since we started talking. "We should get a pool like this when we get home. But heated." she said, kicking over to the side of it and pulling herself up so she was sitting out of the water instead of having to kick around to keep herself up.

I nodded, enjoying how she had said 'we' should get a pool like this. If only any of us other than the Cullens had that kind of money...

She wiped her face to get rid of any excess water and looked down at me. "So how did you get all this time off work?"

I blinked a couple of times, then screwed my face up. _"Damn it!"_

She laughed, then stopped. "You seriously didn't tell them you were leaving?"

"I _might've _told Lisa something about it..." I tried to remember alerting any of my work mates. Nothing. "Okay, I know Oliver knew about us coming here. He would've told her, wouldn't he?"

She shrugged. "What if you get fired?"

"I'll have to find another job."

"Now I feel guilty." she murmured, hanging her head.

I pulled myself up to sit next to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Why the hell do you feel guilty?"

"Because I'm the one who asked you to come to California with me in the first place." she said quietly.

I laughed. "I would've come, even if you hadn't invited me." I told her. "And I was starting to think about looking for a new job, anyway. There's only so many years you can stay in one place without the other staff noticing how little I've changed."

"You haven't at all." she pointed out.

"I've had a fair few haircuts."

She sighed heavily and kicked her feet in the water. "Well, I'm sorry that you're probably going to lose your job."

"And I'm sorry that you feel guilty about something that isn't your fault at all." I said, kissing the corner of her eye. I frowned and looked down at her as her stomach clenched and her heart rate sped up. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." she answered quickly, pushing herself back into the water. "I'm going to get Nessie..."

*******

"Told you!" Jacob said, kicking the side of my bed.

We'd gotten home a while ago, after many hours of Nat's house. It had started to get dark, so we'd left her living room and the heap of board games we'd been spending our free afternoon with and walked back to Peggies.

"She does not have a crush on me." I sighed.

"Then how do you explain all that?" Jacob asked me, raising his eyebrow. "That's exactly how Nessie acted when her physical age got to about...fourteen."

"Claire's not as mature as Nessie." I debated.

"She's more mature than any other human her age." Jacob sighed, sick of my disagreeing. "And I could tell you were checking her out today."

"No, I wasn't."

"You were." he said. "And like I said the other night, I don't think you're a pedophile. See, I still think of us as sixteen, because that's how old we were when we phased. Claire's _almost_ sixteen. And there're a whole lot of couples that have more than a few months age difference between them."

"When did you start checking Nessie out?" I asked him.

He grinned. "When she was five." he frowned at me. "But she looked sixteen."

"Whatever you want to believe, Jacob." I joked.

"You were checking Claire out." he said again.

I was about to retort with another lie toward why I kept looking at Claire, when there was a knock on the door. Nessie pushed it open and joined Jacob on his bed. "Hello." she said, kissing his mouth lightly. "Mind if I sleep in here tonight? Claire's not warm enough for my liking." she smiled up at me. "And yeah, you were checking her out."

I groaned and put my face in my hands. "Reflex reaction, guys! Just like how I know you guys were feeling each other up through the tiny amount of clothing you were wearing today in that cave! You can't help yourselves."

Nessie blushed, but acted like she wasn't embarrassed. "We know you can't wait to get there yourself, Quil."

I closed my eyes, trying to block both of them out. Nessie was the first one to speak again. "I left Claire in there all by herself. I hope she's not freezing..."

I sighed and gave her a disapproving look. "Is she asleep?"

"Nearly." she said mischeviously. "You should go sing her a lullaby. That's what Dad said he used to do for Mom to get her to go to sleep. And it's really romantic." she frowned and turned around in Jacob's arms to look at him. "How come you don't sing me to sleep?"

"I don't know..." he put on an overly-thoughtful face. "I probably should, seeing as I've got the voice and everything."

Nessie gagged and motioned for me to leave the room. "Don't start singing yet, I want to do stuff before I fall asleep."

"It is amazing how you're both still virgins." I muttered, pushing myself up from my bed and almost running to the door. I didn't want to stay any longer in that room and listen to the two of them. It sounded like they weren't going to be as tame as they were on other nights, and even then, while I was reading something _and_ listening to music, it was horrible to sit though. I'd moved myself out the front of Peggie's house multiple times to get away from them.

I stopped at the start of the hallway. Where was I going now? Nessie had thrown more hints than I needed to be off to Claire's room, but I wasn't sure if that was where I should be headed. Seeing her as this new person was making me consider things more seriously, and I almost wished it were still years ago, and it was just another night of me babysitting her while her parents were working.

Back then, I was free to act myself around her. I didn't care all that much about what she thought of my personality, how I thought she'd want me to act. She was just the sunshine in my life that kept the world turning.

Now she was so much more.

Thinking about her made me feel sick to my stomach, made my heart pick up its pace. I didn't want to see her every day as the little girl I'd taken so much care of. I wanted to hold her every second of the day and keep her warm from the freezing wind I knew was waiting for us back home. I wanted to hear her laugh, as I always had, and I smiled sadly as I realized she hadn't been doing a lot of it for a while now.

I'd been thinking of her so strongly that I'd been pulled to her door. I was about to push it open the slightest bit, but stopped myself. What if the others were wrong about her crushing on me? What if it was just their own memories picking up certain qualities in Claire that had just started developing? I didn't want to walk in there and have her act distant to me. That would be the worst thing in the world that that moment.

She was still only fifteen, I kept reminding myself, no matter how old she looked or acted. Pretty soon she'd be sixteen, as I still considered myself, but that wasn't something to cheer about, exactly. For all I knew, she could be having a secret relationship with Brodie that they don't want anyone to find out about.

Thoughts of Brodie made my mind up for me. Just because I wanted her to be happy and marry whoever she wanted didn't mean I wasn't going to be a try-hard. She'd always be my Claire-bear, and if Brodie thought he had a chance with her after only a week of knowing her, he had something coming to him. I pushed open the door and half-walked into the room.

She pushed herself up from where she was tying to sleep to check who had just entered the room. She smiled when she saw me. "Oh, hey Quil."

"Why are you still awake?" I asked her, walking to the side of the bed.

She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. Why are you here?"

I shrugged. "Couldn't stand to be in the same room as the two horny halfbreeds."

She laughed. "You count youselves as halfbreeds?"

"We're definitely not full..." I sat on the side of her bed.

She sat up to watch me. "Does that mean you're homeless for the night?"

"Unless I want to go back and try to block out what they're doing." I confirmed, closing my eyes at the thought.

She smiled and motioned to Nessie's side of the bed. "You can sleep in here, if you want. I'm getting cold without Nessie keeping me company.

"Thanks, Claire-bear." I said, climbing in with her. She smiled again and fell back onto her pillows.

It wasn't as awkward as I would have assumed, sharing a bed with Claire. We had heaps of times in the past, and though it felt different now, it didn't feel weird. I studied her closely for any signs of more than friendly feelings toward me, and ended up not deciding. Sure, her heart rate picked up and blood darkened her cheeks for a while to start with, but that started to receed as our conversation slowed down and her eyelids started drooping.

"You're tired." I obsereved, leaning across her to turn the light off. "You should go to sleep before Sam comes in with a foghorn in the morning."

She laughed and closed her eyes, rolling onto her side so she was facing away from me. I wrapped my arm around her and held her closer to me, just in case she got cold during the night. And also so she couldn't get too far away from me. I kissed the corner of her eye and put my head on the pillow beside her.

"Goodnight, Quil." she whispered.

"Sweet dreams, Claire-bear." I murmured, breathing in the scent of her hair as I fell into a comfortable sleep.

*******

**CPOV**

I'd never been good at waking up, especially on school days, but from the moment I'd been aware of my surroundings the next morning, I hadn't been so groggy.

Quil was still there, holding me in a gentle, yet strong, embrace and breathing into my hair. His arm was wrapped draped over my waist, so it ended on the matress on the other side of me and our hands were entertwined there. I tried as inconspicuously as I could to take mine out of his without him noticing. If he happened to wake and find us together in such a way, he might get freaked out and become more distant than he had been earlier throughout our trip.

I rolled over so I was facing him, not thinking about how close our faces would be. I was surely less than two inches away from him. I studied his beautiful face for a fair few minutes, not wanting to leave my place, but not wanting to have him wake up and catch me staring at him like some crazed stalker.

I finally figured I should leave my place, but didn't move. So I could wake up not so groggy, but I still had issues with getting out of bed. Or maybe it was just under these wonderful circumstances...

I tried getting back to sleep, not caring in that moment if he woke up later and got freaked out by our faces being so close. We could have easily moved around a bit in our sleep. See? None of _that_ was our fault.

I smirked at his light snoring. The same snores that had helped me sleep while I was growing up. I knew most people would consider the quiet, peaceful sounds annoying, but I found them comforting.

I sighed and closed my eyes again. Quil must have heard me from somewhere in his sleep, because his arms tightened around me, pulling me even closer to him. This could be bad if we were any closer. I decided to finally get out of bed.

Quil had never been a light sleeper, but I took care climbing out of the light blankets and off the matress. He just reached out to where I had been lying, then rolled over. I smirked, kicking my feet into my slippers, then walking quickly but quietly from the room.

I slid the door shut behind me as quietly as I could, then turned to make my way into the kitchen.

"Holy shit!" I said, taking a step back, into the door.

"What happened last night?" Sam asked, waggling her eyebrows.

I scowled and shook my head. "Nothing 'happened'. Do you just ask stupid little things like that to annoy people?"

"Duh." she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the dining room. "Now, I've been waking up a few hours earlier than I usually would through the summer while you bitches are staying here, but it's so worth it, because my ideas are always so much better than anyone else's. So, I was thinking of what we could possibly do before you go back to your ice tray of a town, and it just clicked. Peggie's already agreed."

"We're going ice fishing?" I asked her, blinking erratically to perhaps clear out the sleep from my eyes.

"_Skating_," she corrected, reaching up to take a box out of the cupboard. "I just thought it'd be something y'all were used to, seeing as you live in the snow."

"Sam, we don't live in the snow...it's just a cold place."

"But it _does_ snow there." she pushed.

"Yeah, it does."

"Every day..."

"Shut up and get me some Pop-Tarts." I sighed, giving up on all hope of conversation with her.

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**Another sorry; for posting this chapter a day later than I said I would. I had a really bad weekend, and I just wanted to crawl into my bed and cry, which I gratefully did as soon as I got back to my house, so I hope you don't mind me getting it up today instead.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	40. Chapter Thirty Nine

**It's so late...and I'm so tired. But I'm posting this chapter!**

**Thank you to; ****HeyI'mSarah, XxsweetcakexX, lovably17, Paris Lautner, KatieJoanna, spannieren, Chickedy-pea, MargoPix, MissEmbryRocks, bookworm1545, alynawt, LilaW08, Ginaaaa, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, LockDown, vampiremom1221, twi-nighter, Asha123, allgirlsloveavampire, weesh, queenybee8289, wowza811, asta123pasta, krizue and guys in my head ****for reviewing. And to the people who put this story in their favourites list. And to the people who put this story in thier alerts list. And to the people who've been reading it. And to the people who're sleeping right now...**

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**Chapter 39**

Ice skating wasn't what I thought was the best thing we'd done since arriving in California.

"Why don't I just go and get us all hot chocolates, and you guys can wait for me on the ice?" I asked them, turning around with the big, chunky skates on and starting to walk off in the direction of the small cafe.

Jacob grabbed my arm and held me where I was. "There's no way you're walking away from the ice, Claire."

"I really don't think I'll be able to--"

"Well, you have no idea, do you?" Nessie asked, picking me up and carrying me to the edge of the ice. "Just get on."

"You know, there's a reason I never went on back home." I started thoughtfully, staring at the slippery flooring less than a foot away from me.

"Because you were scared shitless?" Quil grinned next to me. He took a step onto the ice and skated a few metres, turning back to me. "See? Easy."

"You've ice skated before." I accused.

"Not for fifteen years." he said quietly.

"The three of you have almost perfect balance." I shot back.

Nessie sighed in frustration and pulled Jacob onto the ice with her. "Whatever, Claire. We'll just skate around and you can drink your hot chocolate by yourself."

"Thank you." I said, turning back.

Quil's abnormally warm hand was around mine and he was pulling me back to the ice. "Nessie, you should know by now Claire's too stubborn to fall for reverse psychology."

"Not to mention I'm fifteen and can tell what she was trying to do." I muttered sourly.

"That, too." Quil allowed. "And if you're so worried about losing your balance, you're being stupid. You know the three of us would be more than happy to help you."

I kicked the wall of the rink without looking at any of them. "That just makes me a pain for you..."

"Claire, if you don't cut it out, I'm going to pull you on the ice, push you over and laugh at you." Jacob sighed.

I glared at him and folded my arms. "That's not the way to get me out there."

"But I have better ideas." Quil said, bending down and grabbing my middle. He flung me over his shoulder and skated out again.

"Quil, put me down right now, or I'm going to shove the blade on the bottom of my foot so far into your--"

"Put her down!" one of the staff members said to Quil, motioning for him to put me on the ice.

Quil chuckled and lowered me lightly to the ground, so I wasn't wobbling once I was standing on it. "You were saying?"

"You're an ass." I said, trying to ignore the disappointment coursing through me on account of his hands leaving my waist.

Sam passed us quickly, turning so she could keep facing us and skating backwards. "Show off!" I yelled to her. She flung her head back and laughed, turning around again.

Quil grabbed my arm as I struggled to stay upright. "Thanks." I said, focusing on my feet.

"C'mon." he said, taking my hand and pulling me. "Just slide your feet outward."

I didn't get how he did it, but I did end up being able to move forward without falling over. The five of us got in trouble for starting a snow ball fight on the side of the rink, then we all sat down for fries and hot chocolate. I think the staff were deciding whether or not they should kick us out, because one of them still wasn't happy about Quil picking me up earlier. He'd been watching us the whole time.

"Nessie, you're not eating again." Sam observed.

"I had a big breakfast." Nessie said dismissively. Sam had woken up long before Nessie or Jacob, but she didn't seem to think that far into it.

I looked down and fished my phone out of my pocket when I felt it vibrating. I raised an eyebrow when Cater's name came up on the screen. Curious, I flipped it open to see what he had sent me.

**OMG! Dyllan just asked me to be his boyfriend! :D xoxo**

I chuckled as I imagined he, himself saying it. He'd most definitely have a sing-song kind of ring to his voice. I pressed the button that would sent back a reply.

**Oh, that's awesome, Carter! What happened?xo**

I didn't have to wait a whole minute before he sent back. Carter was usually one excited, so I could imagine him bouncing at the moment.

**Just an ordinary day out. We went for lunch. He just asked me then. Sooo romantic! xoxo**

**So...you're officially a couple now?xo**

**Yes! Finally! xoxo**

**I'm happy for you! Can't talk anymore. I'm with my cousin. See you when I get back to La **

**We're having a day for gossip. xoxo**

I rolled my eyes and put my phone back in my pocket. Maybe the gays in movies weren't as far from the real thing than I'd thought. Well, Dyllan must have been an exception. I still hadn't heard him say or do anything that'd give people clues toward it. Other than what he said or did to Carter, I mean.

"Who was that?" Quil asked me.

I grinned and looked up at them all. "Carter. He and Dyllan are a couple as of lunchtime."

"Oh, that's great." Nessie said, smiling sweetly, even though she'd never actually met Carter before. Alice had already told us she was going to organise a shopping trip with him for us.

Sam sighed and put her chin in her hands. "Why is everyone getting boyfriends?"

"I'm not..." I murmured quietly, pouting a little as I put my phone back in my pocket.

**QPOV**

"Is Nessie sleeping in here again tonight?"

"Do you have a problem with it?"

"No, I was just wondering."

"And _why_ don't you have a problem with it?"

"Shut up, Jake."

He laughed and kicked his shoes off, both of them flying into the corner of the room. "You're so uptight about the whole subject."

"Just trying not to get my hopes up."

He gave me an annoyed look. "Quil, how many times have we been over this? I'm actually starting to get sick of the whole subject."

"I'm still not convinced." I admitted.

He rolled his eyes and faced me with his legs crossed. Great. Looks like I was in for a lecture on how stupid I was being... "Quil, Claire-will-want-to-go-out-with-you. From what I've seen, _she already_ _does! _Why can't you understand that?!"

"I just don't want to live my whole life thinking I'll be the one for her, then have her run off with some other guy--"

"Of _course_ you're the one for her! You Imprinted, didn't you?"

"What kind of question is that, Jacob?! You know I--"

"Then you're her soulmate!" he said, seeming satisfied with this being the end of the conversation.

"Talk over me one more time, and I'll do worse to you than Edward's ever threatened." I promised him.

He shook his head. "Impossibility."

"Anyway, just because she's my soulmate doesn't mean she needs to end up with me like _that."_

"Eh. Most soul mates end up like that."

I opened my mouth to say something back, but we both stopped and turned to the door as we heard frantic footsteps running in the direction of our room. The door flung open and Claire burst into the room with her phone in her hand.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, standing up. I was alarmed at her face and the way she'd tumbled through the halls. "What's wrong?"'

"Mom," she panted. "She's having the baby." She walked to my bed and sat down on it, resting her chin on her knees. "Emily just called to tell me. She took her to the hospital."

"Emily'll take care of her." I told her, sitting next to her and taking her hands.

"What do we do now?" she asked me, staring questioningly at me with her big brown eyes.

I blinked a couple of times and let out a shaky sigh. Why the hell did she have to be so beautiful?! "Claire-bear, she got us out of La Push so you wouldn't freak out and go crazy when this happened. You don't need to do it here, either. She'll be okay."

"Yeah, but I think we should consider leaving now anyway. Just so we're there when she's had the baby."

"She'll tell us when to come home. Besides, we still have a few more days until we were going to go home, anyway." I said, brushing a lock of her wavy hair behind her ear. "Just take a few breaths and settle down, okay? The baby'll be there when we get back."

***

**CPOV**

On our second last day in California, we went to Sam's house. I'd been feeling a little guilty that I'd been seeing a lot of her and none of her older sister. Peggie had sent us over, anyway.

Their house was about the same size of Peggie's, but looked more modern. As soon as we'd entered the driveway, we could hear loud music coming from inside the house.

"Oh, God." Sam muttered, her face turning down in disgust. "Just...be ready to close your eyes. Ana usually has doof-doof music playing when her boyfriend's over."

She started walking quicker up the driveway and knocked on the door loudly. "Annalise?!"

When she'd knocked four times without getting any answer, she climbed up onto a chair and retrieved a key from underneath a small pot plant. She unlocked the door, opened it slowly and stepped in cautiously.

"Ana?"

The entrance of their house opened up into the living room. Ana and who I assumed was her boyfriend were walking into a room behind it as we walked in.

"Okay, both of you need to put some clothes on." Sam instructed, crossing her arms like an angry parent. "Are Mom and Dad working?"

"What the hell, Sam?!" Ana asked, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend as he kissed her hair.

"Clothes." Sam said again (Ana was wearing no pants, and what I took to be his shirt, as he was only in a pair of jeans. And I can confidently say yes, Quil's body was better than his.). The two of them narrowed their eyes at her. "Are you going to introduce me to...?"

"Jacob, Nessie, Claire, Quil." Sam said, waving her hand behind her. We each nodded in turn. "This is Alex."

Alex, unlike most guys, only looked at Nessie as long as he had the rest of us before looking back down at Ana. I liked him already. Ana, on the other hand, was pouting with her eyes locked on the hybrid next to me.

"Lunch." she said, pulling herself out of Alex's arms, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the kitchen. Nessie sighed heavily and took a seat in a chair full of cushions.

"Ignore her, Nessie. She's not used to being one of the ugly ones." Sam said bitterly, dropping down onto Nessie's lap. "So this is our house. Welcome. Now, who's tame enough to go ask Ana to dinner tomorrow?"

"You can." Nessie said quietly.

Sam jumped up and grabbed my hand. "Let's do this!"

She pulled me into the kitchen, kicking Alex on her way. "None of that. The kitchen is a place of hygiene."

"Good thing we just got out of the shower." Ana said, stepping out of where she was crammed in between Alex and the cupboard. "Do you guys want me to make you lunch?" she asked, ignoring the look on Sam's face at her last comment.

"Are you going to?"

"No, I was going to tell you to wake up to yourselves. Why _are _you here?" she asked as she grabbed a box of cookies.

"Peggie sent us over to ask if you wanted to go out tomorrow night. These guys're going home."

"Your mom had the baby?" she asked me.

I nodded. "A baby girl. She hasn't named her yet. She said she couldn't think of anything, but she'd hopefully have her named when we got back."

"Congratulations." she said, seating herself on the cupboard and eating her cookies.

"Sounds like you're better." Sam observed. "You didn't come back."

"She gave her cold to me. She's been taking care of me." Alex told her.

"I'm sure she has..." Sam muttered.

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**Did you like it? You can tell me in a review. Are my words not very enthusiastic compared to other times? You can tell me in a review to go to sleep...I think I will...**

**Okay, then. I think I'm going to lay down among my many pillows and dolls and bears and stuffed things and let my eyes slide shut like they've wanted to for the last couple of hours...**

**Thanks, guys. I love you all...**

**Chlowie, xo...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**


	41. Chapter Forty

**Hey, guys! I'm posting this chapter while I'm supposed to be cleaning my room, but I don't think it's that much of a loss...**

**Thank to the people who added my story to their alerts and favourites list since last chapter, and these people; ****XxsweetcakexX, guys in my head, vampiremom1221, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, amiko-san, Asha123, allgirlsloveavampire, MargoPix, spannieren, bookworm1545, asta123pasta, queenybee8289, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, Tortall101, HeyI'mSarah, alynawt, Shouldna, twi-nighter, alicat, Chickedy-pea, RenesmeeCarlieBlackxo and Ginaaaa!**

**Oh, and a reply to alicat, seeing as you weren't logged in when you reviewed; this story isn't just about the romance. It's Claire's life, and I'd like to portray it in a way that shows the different stages of her age. If you think my story's that 'ridiculous', stop reading it. I'm sure there are a lot more out there that are more what you're looking for.**

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**Chapter 40**

**QPOV**

Nessie woke us up at four o'clock the next afternoon. I sat up slowly, sheilding my eyes from the harsh light pouring through the window she'd just opened. We'd been here for more than a fourtnight and I still wasn't use to how bright it was through the day. I missed the clouds.

"Get up. It's four pm!"

"We only fell asleep at nine this morning!" I argued. We'd stayed up and had a movie marathon in the living room. Ana and Alex had come, too, which had been pretty cool. I really got along with Alex, even though he had spent half the night taking tablets and coughing into his hand. Funnily enough, Ana had gotten closer to Claire, as well. They'd laughed about things they were saying to each other, even. I'd been so happy to see Claire getting along with her. When she was connecting so well with people she hadn't met before, they were usually guys. This was a nice change.

"Fine. You've had a whole seven hours of sleep. That's more than anyone, other than myself, in my family's had in the past thirteen years. Get-out-of-bed!" she said, jumping on her fiance and kissing his forehead as he gave her a happy, peaceful look.

"Where's Claire?" I asked her, pulling the light blankets off me and standing from the matress. I stretched and started walking in the direction of the bathroom.

"She just woke up, too." Nessie said, climbing into bed with Jacob.

Claire was in the bathroom when I got there. She was standing over the sink, brushing her teeth in one of my old t-shirts I'd worn before phasing and a pair of knee-length socks. I smiled and ran my toothbrush under the water next to her.

"Good afternoon." she said politely after she'd spit in the sink.

I smiled down at her and kissed the corner of her eye. "Nessie woke me up." I said, putting my toothbrush in my mouth.

She laughed. "You didn't have to sleep with her last night. I kind of wish she'd kept sleeping in your room. She was up at least an hour ago."

She washed her face, then took a seat on the side of the bathtub. "What are you wearing tonight? Peggie said the restaraunt was kind of classy."

I rinsed my mouth and shrugged. "I don't know. I never dress up."

"I'm sure Nessie's got something for you and Jacob to wear."

"What are you wearing?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes. Claire hadn't owned a dress fit for this kind of restaraunt since she was seven.

"Dunno..." she said quietly, staring at the bottom of the wall. She stood from her seat and skipped to the door. "See you when we're leaving."

I raised an eyebrow. "We don't leave for another hour and a half."

"Nessie said she was spending time on my hair and makeup. Alice gave her classes while she was growing up and told her she'd better use them for occasions like this."

"Good luck." I joked, splashing water in my face as she walked back to her room.

***

"Nessie, Claire, hurry _up!"_ Sam screeched, tugging on the bottom of her dress as she stood on her toes to get a better look of around the hall. She was wearing slip-on shoes she had borrowed from Annalise for the occasion, and her eyelashes were perfectly styled, flicking out as they framed her green eyes.

"Shut up, Sam!" Nessie's voice shot back.

Annalise sighed dramatically and dropped onto the couch next to her. She picked up a magazine and began flicking through it.

Ana had dressed more properly for our dinner. Her dress was black and white and fell to the middle of her thighs. She had worn small black heels with silver sequins lining the strap, and her hair was straightened, with the top layer a little teased to make it a bit more volumised.

"Tell them to hurry up. I'm hungry." Ana said quietly, crossing her legs and turning another page.

There was a loud laugh and footsteps getting closer to the room we were waiting in. The five of us looked up expectantly as Nessie came around the corner and flew into Jacob's arms, just a bit faster than human speed. She seemed pleased with herself, and was wearing a beautiful green tutu dress that was tied at her thin waist with a bow. Her matching green heels almost put her at six foot, but Jacob was still a giant in comparison to her. Her curls had been pulled up in places and a black and green flower decorated them on the side of her head. Her makeup was light and natural-looking, but still showed off her already-breathtaking features. She grinned and tilted her head at the entrance she'd just walked through, waiting for Claire.

She came around the corner slowly, looking a little self-conscious. I had no idea why. Her hair had been straightened and her fringe and top layer of hair had been pulled up and puffed so it gave her a kind of tame-rock look. Her eyes had been outlined in a smoky way and her eyelashes were so long they touched her eyebrows when she looked up. She was wearing the same lip gloss as Nessie -- just a clear shade that made her lips glisten when she moved them. A dark blush had been brushed lightly across her cheeks, just showing up on her skin.

Her dress was absolutely perfect. It was in an Indian style, just like a modern version of the ones you saw in the old Western movies with the cowboys. It was made of a tan-brown material and cut so it curved perfectly with her, showing off her figure. It was just as long as Annalise's, but didn't look inappropriate at all. She was wearing a leather necklace with Native American beading and feathers on it. She'd completed her outfit by making it perfect-Claire and wearing black tights and beige Converse with it.

She looked so, so beautiful.

I pulled her into a tight hug, careful not to mess up her hair or makeup as I did so, as she walked closer to us. "You're gorgeous." I said quietly.

She giggled and pulled back, her blush looking a little bigger than it had when she'd first walked in. She looked at Ana and Sam and her smile dropped a bit. "We going?" she asked Peggie, who nodded and led the way to the front door.

I kept Claire's hand until we got to the restaraunt. We all sat down at a large table with a few seats left empty. I looked toward Peggie. "I thought you said there was going to be just enough seats at the table?

***

**CPOV**

I left the bathroom and entered the room I had been staying in. Nessie had finally come back to sleep there with me the night -- or morning -- before, so Quil had moved back to his own room.

I crouched down and opened my suitcase, pulling out the bag that contained the dress I was wearing. It was the one Dyllan and Carter had bought for me the first time I'd gone shopping with the two of them. I'd been waiting for a special occasion, and this seemed like just the time.

I pulled it over my head and smoothed it out, admiring it in the mirror. It really was like it was custom made to fit my figure. It was so pretty.

I looked over my shoulder at the door as Nessie closed it behind her. "Whoa. That's gorgeous!" she said, walking over and pulling the bottom of it out to admire. "Where the hell did you get this?!"

"Carter and Dyllan bought it for me." I said happily, looking back in the mirror. "And you know what I just realized? I didn't bring any shoes to wear with it."

"I have, like, a million pairs. You're only one size smaller than me. I'm sure a pair of mine will do you just for tonight." Nessie said, walking quickly back to her suitcase and pulling out about ten pairs of fancy shoes. "How about these ones?" she asked, holding up a pair of black satin heels.

I shook my head, wishing I'd bought a pair of heels I'd seen in Port Angeles once. They had been black and really shiny with closed toes and about four inches high on a chunky heel. They had been the best looking pair of shoes I'd ever tried on.

"No, I'll just wear..." I picked up a pair of my Converse off the floor from next to the bed. "These."

"But you _always_ wear Converse!" Nessie whined, bouncing on the balls of her feet a little. Whoa, she really needed to stop hanging out with her aunt.

"But these ones are really close to the color of my dress, and with black tights it'll look more fancy."

"Fine, but this just means I'm spending extra time on your hair and face." she said, pulling her shirt over her head and throwing it on the floor.

Once we were both dressed, I sat myself on our bed and watched her skillfully put on make-up that just highlighted her amazing beauty. She was finished within ten minutes. Then, she pulled up a few curls on the left side of her head and fixed them there with a black and green hair decoration in the shape of a flower.

"How do you manage to look even more beautiful?" I asked her, wondering if I had already turned a nasty shade of green to match her dress.

She frowend at me. "You're beautiful, too, Claire."

"But you're just revealing that your family's not human more than they already have." I muttered, staring at my feet from her compliment.

"Well, I'll never be as beautiful as any of the other members of my family." she sighed, moving so she was sitting in front of me.

"What if something happens, then you have to be turned?" I asked her curiously.

She shrugged. "Hopefully nothing ever will. I don't want to go through that type of pain, then still be in it whenever Jake's around me. And I don't want him to have to smell me like he does the rest of them...not to mention the risk of the venom I'll have if I'm ever turned."

"It's lethal to shapeshifters." I remembered, nodding thoughtfully.

She smiled grimly and tied my hair back from my face. "Now, you're not allowed to move or I'll have to bite _you_." she smirked and spread something across my face. I sat perfectly still, resisting flinching as she rubbed cold creams into my skin.

I'd lost track of time and just fallen into the songs playing from my iPod as she fixed me up. When she was finally done with my makeup, she plugged in her hair straightener Alice had bought her for her birthday the year before. It was supposed to be one of the best hair straighteners in the world and could get out Nessie's long curls with ease, so I had no doubt it was. I just didn't want to think about how much it would have cost.

Nessie straightened all of my hair, which took about twenty-five minutes, then took a chunk from the front, including my fringe, and pulled it backwards, teasing underneath it. She pinned it to the top, back of my head and put a whole heap of hairspray on it.

"Nessie, I thought I told you I didn't like my fringe away from my face." I complained.

She rolled her eyes and held the mirror up for me to see. "Shut it, Claire. You don't have any zits people can see on your forehead."

"I can see them." I grumbled.

She narrowed her eyes. "You're the only one. Not even I can and my visions a million times better than yours. You're just a pessimist."

I stuck my tongue out at her and we both looked toward the door as our names were called. "I think they want us out there...jeeze, how long did it take you to make me beautiful."

"Long enough." she grinned. "And I needed to do something to you that would help you impress Quil." she said so quietly I had to strain my ears to hear. Obviously she was keeping her words from him. "They started calling a few minutes ago. C'mon." she took my hand and pulled me to the door. She left me there and skipped ahead when I didn't walk the speed she wanted.

She peeped around the corner, smiled, then skipped to where I assumed Jacob was standing. I walked slower, considering returning back to the bathroom and washing half of the make-up I was wearing off. Nessie had done just as good a job as Alice ever did with my make-up, and I didn't look fifteen at all.

I hesitantly walked around the corner, still deciding whether I wanted to go out like this or not. I mean, I looked beautiful, but I was self-conscious. Ana, Sam and Nessie were so gorgeous in comparison to me, and I didn't want to look like I'd tried to hard, and still failed next to them.

I looked up, into Quil's eyes, and my stomach immediately filled with butterflies. Stupid crush. I frowned a little at his expression. He had his mouth open a little bit and his eyes were locked on my face. Probably wondering how Nessie managed to make me look like this, I guess.

He and Jacob were both wearing the same kind of thing. They had white dress shirts on, and baggy jeans, but Quil's were a bit grayer than Jacob's dark blue ones. Either Nessie had allowed them to wear a pair of casual shoes each with their outfits, or they'd put them on, anyway.

Their hair was just as messy as they usually kept it, Jacob's shaggy around his ears, and Quil's just a little bit shorter. He looked so amazingly hot.

I gave him a small smile, and he pulled me into a tight hug, a little carefully, so my hair and face was saved.

"You look gorgeous." he murmured.

I giggled stupidly and pulled back before I started molesting him in front of everyone. He took my hand and kept it while we were walking out of Peggie's house, in her car, and on the walk into the restaraunt. I squeezed his fingers, just so I could have the wonderful feeling of him squeezing mine back.

Peggie got our reservated table and we all took our seats. Quil sat straight across from me, next to Nessie, so I had Jacob on my right side. Analise, looking like she would rather be anywhere else in the whole world, took the seat on the other side of Nessie, and Sam sat next to her. Peggie sat on Quil's other side and looked around at the four of us for a few seconds before Quil opened his mouth again.

"I thought you said there was going to be just enough seats at the table?"

Peggie looked at Sam. "Her idea. She can explain."

Sam was wearing a pretty brown, pink and white tartan dress, that was shorter than any other dress I'd ever seen worn before. It had a thick pink band that ran around her thin waist and her hair had been straightened, and sat perfectly, like always, over her shoulders.

She picked at her nails boredly, then looked at Quil again. "Oh, the guys wanted to come see y'all before ya left."

"Which ones in particular?" Quil asked softly.

Sam looked around the table. "Well, seeing as their _is_ only four seats left, and there _are _only four people that I hang out with, I'd say you could guess pretty easily...speak of the devil." she finished softly, rolling her eyes as Jack skipped to the table and took a seat.

"Hey," he greeted us all, looking over his shoulder at Nat, Brodie and Brock, who were all following him slowly. They were all dressed up more than I had ever seen them, and I wondered if I could get away with taking Nat's dress. Her's was tutu, as well as Nessie's, and I had already wished I'd owned one that I could wear. They were by far my favorite.

"Hello, Claire." Brodie said, taking the seat next to me. I smiled in return and turned my head back to Quil's direction. Brodie had been annoying me for a while, and I wasn't looking forward to spending dinner next to him.

We ordered, and waited for our food to come. The whole table was talking loudly, and we recieved a few rude glances from couples eating around the restaraunt. I hardly spoke to anyone. Quil didn't look like he was in the best mood, and Nessie had, surprisingly enough, started speaking to Ana. They both laughed at things I couldn't make out from where I was sitting, and they spent a lot of time nodding in agreement at what the other said.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Jacob chuckled from next to me. "I just hope she doesn't start calling her her new best friend and want to come back. I miss La Push."

"I didn't think they'd ever start talking." I admitted to him. "And they look like they're enjoying each other's company, even."

"Surprise, surprise." Jacob sighed, kicking Quil's leg. I stared back down at the table in front of me as the two of them quietly spoke at something I consididered was none of my business, and Brodie opened him mouth to ramble more crap to me.

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**I hope everyone liked it! Next chapter they'll be heading back to La Push, with just a little bit of California at the start.**

**Thank you so much, each and every one of you for reading!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	42. Chapter Forty One

**Hey, everyone. I'm sorry this is up later that I've been posting usually. I stayed at my grandmother's house, so I didn't have any internet access.**

**Thanks to the favouriters, alerters and reviewers (****spannieren, guys in my head, twi-nighter, queenybee8289, Team-LaPush-Werewolves, amiko-san, vampiremom1221, Asha123, xolanixo, allgirlsloveavampire, krizue, alynawt, bookworm1545, MargoPix, Ginaaaa, Chickedy-pea, xXGh0stXx and leydyan22****) since I posted the last chapter. I love you all!**

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**Chapter 41**

Sam swapped seats with Brock, who was seated on the other side of Brodie when our food came, telling us she had tried as hard as she could not to throw a knife through Jack's head when she had been sitting with him.

"So what have you lovely people been talking about?" she asked pleasantly, leaning forward to see my face as well as Brodie's.

"Nothing." I said before Brodie could give her a recount of whatever he had been telling me. I hadn't been listening well enough to remember exactly what it had been.

"Well, now I'm here, so you shan't feel bored anymore." she shoved a mouthful of chicken in her mouth and chewed happily. I smirked and started eating my own food.

"Are you happy to be going back to Washington and seeing your parents?" Brodie asked me.

Sam elbowed him in the arm and shook her head fiercly. _Her dad died!_ she mouthed.

He turned back to me, his eyes unnaturally wide. "I'm so sorry, Claire! I forgot!"

I shook my head. "It's fine. I wasn't close to him at all, so I have no problem talking about it."

"You don't look bothered at all." Brodie observed.

I shook my head. "I'm really not. In a couple of months it'll be a year since it happened."

"Did you cry at all?" Sam asked, getting interested in the conversation. At least they'd forgotten about worrying me by talking about it.

"Yeah, but I don't think it was so much the whole 'Oh my God, I'll never see my father again -- I'm going to miss him so much!', as 'Whoa, I don't have a dad. I'm, like, the only girl my age without one that I know.'"

"Fair enough." Sam said, taking another massive bite of her dinner.

"So...it's just you and your mom?" Brodie asked, digging deeper into my story.

I shook my head, looking back up at him and wishing I could just eat my food. "Not anymore. She sent me on this trip while she was having my baby sister. I'm going back tomorrow to meet her for the first time."

"What's her name?"

"I don't think she has one yet." I said, turning back to Quil, who sighed and adverted his eyes from Nat next to him, to me. He smirked and rolled his eyes upwards. I laughed quietly.

"Aren't you sad for her because she has to grow up without a father?" Brodie asked me, getting my attention to return back to him.

"My dad wasn't much of a father figure, so I had to cope through it. I had people standing in for him." my eyes flicked to Quil, who was smiling back at me.

Brodie finally shut up and let me eat the rest of my meal. I could see Quil out of my peripheral vision looking across the table, but I didn't look up at him.

***

**QPOV**

I just couldn't get over how beautiful Claire looked. I mean, she was always beyond beautiful, but tonight she just looked...amazing. I wouldn't even be able to begin to describe her if my life depended on it.

I would have been perfectly happy to just sit there and stare at her all night, but, of course, someone up there hated me and had to let the one thing that was making my life in California miserable take the seat next to her and beg for her attention.

I was half-aware that Nat was seated beside me and was babbling at full speed into my ear. I nodded a few times throughout the conversation, without a hint of what she was telling me, but my eyes were always glued across the table.

Sam moved to sit next to Brodie, but he continued talking to Claire. She looked up at me quickly as she spoke about her father to him, and I smiled back at her. She looked down again, to the table, and not into Brodie's eyes, which I was quite happy about.

"Claire, you have the most beautiful hair." he said, just as everyone was finishing their meals. He brushed a lock of it behind her ear. I heard the crack, but I didn't look around to see where it had come from before Claire looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Quil...you okay?" Oh. The crack had come from the fork I was holding. Claire gave me a worried look before Sam leaned forward on the table and took the two pieces of silver from my hand.

"Whoa! You broke a fork with your hand! And it's your left and everything! Quil, you've gotta teach me how to do that!" she said, examining the two pieces excitedly.

I felt someone kick me in the shin underneath the table, and I looked up, into Jacob's eyes. _What's wrong?_ he mouthed.

I shook my head and tilted it in the direction of Claire and Brodie, who had now rested his arm on the back of her chair. If he got any closer to her, I'd be breaking more than forks.

Jacob chuckled and went back to talking to the others around him, while I sat and waited for the night to finally come to an end.

I was so grateful that we were leaving tomorrow. I had had fun in California, with a few exceptions, but I did really want to get back to La Push. I wanted to see the baby. I wanted to catch up with the pack where I could actually see them. I wanted to walk around with people that I knew, who wouldn't stare at me in wonder at my size. And I wanted to put all thoughts of Brodie behind me.

I didn't know what was wrong with me. Claire had hung around with guys all of her life, and a couple had shown this kind of interest toward her before. She never ended up with them, though. They always turned out to have other things in mind, or be stupid drunks that got (almost) what they deserved afterwards. Brodie was no different. There was no way he could take a hold on Claire before we left, and even if he had, we'd be in Washington while he was still in California, and that would be a hard relationship to work out.

So why was I so bothered with the fact that he was paying so much attention to Claire?!

***

**CPOV**

It was kind of sad, having to say goodbye to my cousins and grandmother the morning after our dinner.

I hugged Peggie tightly, saying a few words back to her as she thanked me for coming and staying with her and told me how proud she was to call me her granddaughter. She'd met Hannah and Toby many more times than she'd met me, and apparently Emily had talked about me whilst staying up here with her.

"Tell your mother I said congratulations, as well." she said, letting me go and kissing my forehead. "And you're welcome to come up and stay again any time you want to." she looked toward my best friends. "The same goes to you three, as well. Oh, and Nessie and Jake, I expect an invitation to the wedding." she grinned, her dark eyes crinling up.

"Sure thing, Peggie. Thanks for letting us stay." Nessie said, pulling her into a gentle embrace. Peggie's arms wrapped around her and they hugged for a few seconds, too.

"Get over here, you!" Sam said, tackling me from behind and holding me down for a few seconds before she allowed us both to stand up. "On behalf of me, myself and I, I would like to say thank you for entering my life and letting me spend weeks of my summer entertaining more people than the four boring ones I have out here already. Oh, and one of them said to give you this." she bounded forward and gave me a quick sloppy kiss, standing back again. I cringed and wiped my mouth on my shirt. "Not saying who, though." she added sheepishly.

"Tell them if they ever get you to be the messenger again, I'll track them down and kill them." I told her.

She laughed loudly. "Okay." she walked forward again and gave me a tight hug. "I'll miss you. Send me a postcard. Even though you won't be here with me, I'll still be able to feel you. You're always in my heart, Claire." I swiped at her head as she moved backward, still laughing.

"I want a hug, too." Ana said, skipping forward and wrapping her arms around me. Alex was standing right behind her, and moved forward to add himself in our hug. "Go away, you're sick." she said jokingly, putting her arm around him. He grinned and aimed a fake cough at her hair. "Eww..." she muttered.

I laughed and pulled back from them, kissing Ana's cheek as I did so. Nessie took my place, funnily enough, and Ana hugged her as friendly as she had with me.

"Oh Quilly!" Sam said, running to Quil with her arms outstretched. She jumped up and latched herself onto him, hugging him tightly. He chuckled and hugged her back, leaning forward to put her back down on the ground. Even though I knew it was just a friendly goodbye hug, and Sam had done the same to Jacob less than a minute ago, I still felt a pang of anger toward her.

The four of us moved toward where we would be boarding our plane after taking a few photos with the group we had stayed with. Sam had been taking photos of all of us for the last fortnight or so, but we wanted one last one. They all waved until we couldn't see them any longer, and I could have sworn Sam was crying.

The flight home seemed a lot quicker than the one we had taken to get there. We played a few games of I Spy out of boredom, then Nessie fell asleep, so we took turns of holding her nose to see if we could accomplish doing it without waking her up. Surprisingly, we succeeded, except for Quil's final attempts, which resulted in her snatching his hand from her face with her eyes still closed and throwing it back at him harshly. She fell straight back to sleep after that.

I was staring at the back of the seat in front of me, swallowing multiple times a minute with my brow furrowed when Quil leaned around to talk to me easier. "You okay, Claire-bear?"

"I have this little, annoying ache in the back of my throat..." I said, swallowing again to see if it would go away. "It's gotten worse in the last half hour."

"Do you want a drink or something?" there was really no point in me answering his question. He was already getting me one.

"Thanks." I said, sitting back in my seat and taking a sip of the water. "Ugh, it won't go away! What if I'm catching Alex's cold?"

"That'd suck, because I can't see your mom letting you spend a lot of time with the baby in that kind of condition." he said thoughtfully.

I sighed and downed the rest of my water, ignoring my highly annoying throat ache. I knew that if I really had caught the cold, it'd just get worse for a while.

I was so excited, I swear I was bouncing like Alice when we left baggage claim. I couldn't wait to see my new little sister. The weather was so much colder than it had been in California that I'd had to stop and get a jacket out of my bag, as well as a pair of socks that went over my knees. I just wanted to get home and sit under my blanket.

"Claire, where'd you get your springs from?" Jacob chuckled, pretending to hold me down by my shoulder. I grinned and linked my arm with his, pulling him in the direction my mother said she'd wait for us at.

"There they are!" Nessie said, pointing a finger over to the other side of the room. My mother was standing next to Emily with a bundle of blankets in her arms. I ran toward them, pushing through parts of the crowd.

"Hey, Baby!" my mother said, throwing one arm around me and holding me tightly to her. "Ah, I missed you so, so much." blabbered, kissing my cheek and brushing my hair back. I smiled back at her and reached for the blankets in her arms, pushing parts of them away to reveal my new baby sister.

"Oh my God, she's so adorable!" I gasped, smiling back at her as she looked at me sleepily.

She had my mother's almost-black eyes, thank God. I couldn't remember what color eyes her father had, but I was pretty sure they hadn't been like the unusual dark chocolate eyes I had inherited from my father. Her skin was so much lighter than my mothers, just a few shades lighter than my own. She had perfectly black, wispy hair that was standing out everywhere, which reminded me of Alice. I pouted when I saw this. My hair was still brown, even though it had been mistaken to be black in the past.

"Does she have a name yet?" I asked.

Mom shook her head. "No, but I'm kind of leaning toward Trinity."

I nodded and looked toward my aunt for the first time. "Hey, Emily."

She smiled and walked forward, capturing me in a tight hug. "I was wondering when you were going to notice me." she kissed the top of my head before turning to my three companions. She hugged and kissed them, too, before tapping my mother on the shoulder and starting toward the door. "Let's get out of here. I have a husband and two kids to feed."

***

We all went back to Emily and Sam's house for lunch. A lot of my best friends were there, so the back yard was crowded, but we were all having fun. We got asked how the trip was, while my mother was attacked by people wanting a closer look at the baby. I was just calling her Trinity, until she was actually named. I was pretty sure Mom would be naming her that, anyway.

Alice and Rosalie showed up an hour after everyone had been there and marched to where Nessie and Jacob were sitting. Quil and I were sitting with them, so we could hear the whole conversation.

"Okay, we're going gown shopping in four days. I've seen the dress you're going to pick, and I just have to say it's absolutely beautiful, Nessie! I just can't see it on you, but I'm sure you'll make it even prettier! Now, Jacob, I was thinking having the wedding at our house, just like Edward and Bella's, because a lot of your homies are still uneasy about our family being on the Reservation," she cut him off as he opened his mouth to speak. "No, you're not saying anything against my decision. I've made up my mind. I've seen how I'm setting things out. This is how we're doing it."

Alice didn't stop talking for about half an hour, and by the end, I was having trouble keeping up. I laughed with Quil about the bits I could understand, as well as the looks on Nessie and Jake's faces.

Nessie shook her head and put a hand over her aunt's mouth to shut her up. "Alice, no offence or anything, but--"

"This is _our_ wedding!" Jacob finished for her. Nessie nodded.

"I know. I'm just making it perfect for you." Alice said innocently, smiling at them both. I looked away from her. How anyone was ever able to say something against that face, I'd never know

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**Now I'm off to take a cold bubble bath and eat several blocks of chocolate...I love nights when I hardly have any homework. :)**

**Please review,**

**Chlowie, xo**


	43. Chapter Forty Two

**Hey, everyone. I was actually planning to get this chapter up yesterday, but my math teacher made sure that wasn't going to happen, so I'm posting it now. Which means you should all be happy, because I just got home from watching **_**Valentines Day**_**, and I'm SUPER tired. (Oh, by the way, it is soooo funny for everyone who hasn't seen it. And some of it's sad...but I won't ruin it.)**

**Thank you to these people; ****Asha123, HeyI'mSarah, KatieJoanna, bookworm1545, Shouldna, guys in my head, vampiremom1221, allgirlsloveavampire, xolanixo, Tortall101, MargoPix, ShElBy CaRlIsLe CuLlEn, alynawt, xXGh0stXx, Ginaaaa, twi-nighter, leydyan22 and Chickedy-pea for reviewing, and to the other people who added mt story to their favourites and alerts lists.**

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**Chapter 42**

I was definitely sick.

My throat just got worse and worse, until I was constantly sucking on some kind of flavored drop that would temporarily help minimize the pain. Two days after getting back to La Push, my head started aching. Later that day my stomach started hurting. My temperature rose until that night, then it stayed pretty high while my nose and throat blocked up and the ridiculous pain in my throat started receeding.

Mom wouldn't let me anywhere near Trinity while I was flued up, so I banished myself to my room, living off vanilla ice cream and Ice Magic. I put as many cushions and pillows and blankets and comforters as I could find on my matress underneath my hammock, piled all of my stuffed animals onto it and buried myself in them, watching my favorite television shows on the tiny TV.

I'd used almost a full box of tissues by the fourth day. There were a heap of them scattered on the left side of my matress, waiting for me to take them out. I just wasn't going to until my paranoid mother and baby sister left the main parts of the house. I couldn't be bothered getting retold over and over again how risky it was for me to be around Trinity in such a condition.

I was coughing so loudly that I didn't hear my door open. I looked up, wedged between four pillows I'd piled up and an over-sized, stuffed grizzly bear Emmett had given me as a joke a few years back.

"Hey," Quil said, walking in slowly and sitting on the foot of my matress. He looked over to where my hammock was hanging down the side of my wall. I'd taken it down after a day of being sick when I'd gotten sick of getting tangled in it every time I stood up. "Are you feeling any better?"

"I told you this morning, I'm fine." I said, wiping my nose and wondering how terrible I looked. I really didn't want to hang out with him while I was such a turn-off. "You didn't have you come over."

"And I told you this morning, I'm bored. Embry hasn't been phased at the same time I have for ages, Jake's patrolling, and after that he's going to Nessie's, and everyone else is boring. I'm visiting you."

"What about Seth?"

"Ever since he and Sandra...got closer, I haven't been willing to get too far into conversation with him. His thoughts stray quite a bit." he said, cringing dramatically.

I snorted, forgetting about the snot build-up in my nose and grabbed a tissue quickly, hoping he hadn't been watching me. Ooh, seductive! "Fine, but it's your own fault if you get sick." I didn't even bother to try telling him he could spend the day with Seth as humans. I kind of wanted his company, even if I resembled a skinnier version of Jabba the Hut.

"I won't get sick." he said, sounding positive. "Besides, even if I do, I'll get over it so quickly no one'll know."

"Don't some people just have all the luck?" I sighed and stood up. "I need to pee."

"Hope everything comes out all right." he chuckled

I stuck my tongue out at him and skipped into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

Walking to the sink, I took in my reflection in the mirror over it. I looked terrible. I was so much paler than usual. I hadn't washed my face every night and morning like I was supposed to, so it wasn't as clear as I'd like it. Then again, it never was. My hair hadn't been brushed since we'd gotten back to La Push. It had dried weird from washing it yesterday, because I hadn't been bothered parting and setting it properly. My eyes and lips were all puffy, and underneath my nose was chafed.

I looked kind of disgusting.

I sighed and pulled out my face wash, dabbing water all over my face before rubbing it in. I didn't rub it in under my poor nose as much as I usually would have. When my face was dry, I brushed my hair as quickly as I could. I didn't get all the knots out, but at least it looked neat. It sat it up at the top, so I looked like I had a few bumps on my head, but I didn't go to too much trouble trying to sort it out.

When I was finished in the bathroom, I went back into my bedroom and took my seat among my pillows, blankets, and dolls. Quil moved over so he was sitting next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. It was odd. I'd been expecting him to be so much warmer. I reminded myself that my teperature was probably a few degrees hotter than it usually was.

I sighed and closed my eyes as he kissed the corner of my left one. "You look so tired..."

"I've been having trouble sleeping." I said softly, taking in a deep breath and smiling at his familiar smell. It reminded me of those trees in the middle of the forest that you could smell so strongly after it had just rained. I loved it.

He traced my closed eyes with his slightly-less-warm fingers, then trailed the tips of them down my nose. I opened my eyes slowly and looked up at his beautiful face, smiling a tiny bit at him.

"You should try and get some sleep." he said softly. "I'll be right here when you wake up."

I nodded and closed my eyes again, snuggling further into his chest and breathing slowly. I was so aware of him being there that I couldn't fall asleep for a while. It was nice having someone there while I was trying to get to sleep, though. Not to mention his chest held me more upright, thought still comfortably, so my nose was clearing out.

Somewhere between listening to his heartbeat and enjoying the warmth of his big hands, my breathing fell into the same pattern as his, and I fell asleep.

***

**QPOV**

She looked so beautiful when she was sleeping. I frowned as she sniffed in her sleep, rubbing subconsciously at her chafed nose. My poor Claire-bear.

She took her hand back from her face and rolled slightly, so her head was resting in my lap, facing me.

I sighed and adjusted myself against her wall, being careful not to move so much it would disturb her. She gave a tiny cough. I smiled and brushed her hair back from her face, running my fingers through it gently. Whatever she said about it looking so terrible wavy, I still thought it looked amazing.

I let my fingers wander back to her forehead and gently run over her eyebrows, down her nose and traced her lips. They pulled up into a grin, and I couldn't help smiling, too.

After half an hour, she ended up flat on her matress, holding onto my arm. I yawned and looked out the window, into the rain that hadn't stopped for almost four straight days. I could hear Marylyn talking in a baby voice to Trinity in the kitchen. It wasn't until I heard Emily, Sam, Hannah and Toby arrive that I rested next to Claire, holding her tightly to me to keep her warm. She took the arm that I had wrapped around her waist and held my hand. I kissed the back of her head, breathing in her hair deeply as I closed my eyes and fell to sleep beside her.

***

I woke up a couple of hours later. Claire was still sleeping softly in my arms, her hand gripping my own. I stayed there for a while later, -- I don't know how long, I lost track of time -- just holding her small form in my arms to me and breathing in her scent.

I wasn't paying attention to the group outside, but it was kind of hard not to notice their existance when Hanna and Toby flung open the door and walked inside. I looked up without moving anything but my head so I wouldn't wake Claire up and looked at them with a polite smile. "Hey,"

Hannah gave me a mischevious grin and Toby did his best to wolf-whistle. "What's going on in here?" he asked slyly.

I shushed them and motioned for them to get out. "You'll wake her up. She's sick."

"Does Aunty Marylyn know you're in here?" Toby asked me, walking closer and peering at Claire's still face.

"Yes. I'm always here." I reminded him. "What're you two doing here?"'

"Mommy bought Aunty Marylyn lunch." Hannah mumbled, looking back out the door as she spoke. "And we came to visit Trinity."

"Is she sleeping?"

"She has been since we got here." Toby sighed. "We're going now, anyway. We were just going to see if Claire was awake so we could say hello."

"Say hey to your mom for me." I said as they turned toward the door.

"Okay. Bye, Quil." Hannah waved once as Toby shut the door behind them both.

Claire woke up about half an hour later and yawned before opening her eyes. She froze for a moment, then rolled over slowly so she was facing me. "Morning, Quil." she said softly, her eyes still half-closed.

"Good afternoon." I corrected, smiling as I brushed hair from her eyes.

She took a deep breath, then looked away from me, toward the wall behind us where there were hundreds of pictures of us as she grew up.

***

**CPOV**

I was half-conscious, and already unaware of what my dreams had been about. I swallowed, groaning mentally at how dry my throat felt. At least it'd ease up with a glass of water.

I opened my eyes slowly. I could feel the warm arm wrapped around my waist, my hands entertwined with the hand connected with it, but I didn't think anything of it. My mind was too busy thinking about my blocked nose and sore throat.

It wasn't until he yawned behind me that I really became aware of him behind me.

Quil. Behind me. With his arm wrapped around me. His hand was holding mine. My eyes slid back as far as they could, but I still couldn't see him. Suddenly my throat and nose wasn't the problem anymore. I was too caught up in the fact that his body behind me was bent so it was perfectly moulded with mine. I picked up that I hadn't moved for a few seconds, then rolled over to face him.

"Morning, Quil." I said. I was still unable to open my eyes all the way, even though I had been shocked by how close we were. I could feel his breath on my face. And holy crap, it was awesome.

"Good afternoon." he said, smirking at me. He took his arm from around me and brushed a few stray locks of hair from my eyes. I breathed in deeply and looked at the wall behind him, as if it were possible for him to find out I was absolutely in love with him (yes, it was getting to that stage) just from looking in my eyes.

I decided getting up was a better idea than lying there and experiencing the feel of the length of my body pressed up against his. _Get real, Claire!_

"I'm going to the bathroom." I said, moving away from him and standing up. I walked quickly to the door and closed it behind me, walking straight to the bathroom.

I washed my face again, dabbed it dry, brushed my teeth and pulled my hair up on top of my head. I stood there for a moment longer, telling myself I couldn't do anything more than change out of Quil's old t-shirt and my shorty-shorts to make myself look better. Oh well. At least I had nice legs.

My bedroom door was open, and Quil wasn't inside when I got out of the bathroom. I heard him laugh from the kitchen and walked through the hall, the living room, and leant against the wall, watching my best friend, my mother and my baby sister.

"Hey, Baby." Mom said. She was holding Trinity in her arms and bouncing her gently. She wasn't wearing any makeup at all, much like her days off work, and was still in her pajamas, even though it was almost dinner time.

Quil looked up from the table, watching me until I sat down in the seat next to him. "I'm not going to cough all over the baby." I told my mother quietly.

***

"Thanks for letting me stay." I said, dumping my bags on Quil's couch.

He shook his head and walked into the kitchen. "You know I love it when you stay here."

"Me, too." I said, smiling sweetly at him from the living room. "I just hope Emily doesn't go crazy from helping my mother out."

"Eh, you'll be better in a week or so, and then you can help her." he grinned as he opened the fridge.

"Yippee." I replied glumly.

The two of us ordered a few pizzas, then spent the rest of the night watching re-runs of _The Big Bang Theory, _before Quil fell asleep with his head tilted back and his mouth wide open. I giggled and poked him in the shoulder, waking him up.

"Are you tired?"

"No," he yawned. "I was just resting my eyes." he snuck a sly glance at me, knowing how much I hated it when people said that.

"Well, I'm starting to get a little tired, so I'm going to bed."

"I am, too." he said, getting up from the couch and racing me into the bathroom. Of course he won. I only used to win races against him when I was younger and he feined slowness to make me happy.

I dressed in my pajamas, then walked back into the living room, remembering my stuffed Quil that was still on the couch from where I was hugging it while we were watching television.

He was out there, holding it when I got out there. He took a sip from the glass of water I assumed he'd just gotten and tossed me the little dog. "'Night, Claire-bear." he hugged me gently, lifting me off the ground, then placed me back down as he bent to kiss the corner of my eye. I kissed his jaw as he pulled away, then stared at my feet.

"Goodnight, Quil." I was brave enough to look up and smile at him before turning and walking back to my room. He was right behind me, and we reached our separate doors at the same time.

"Tell me if you need anything." he said, switching off his light and walking into his room.

I nodded, sure he could still see me, and turned off my own light. I climbed under my comforter and hugged my doll closer to me, looking through my door to Quil's. I finally felt sleepy enough to roll over and close my eyes, drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

***

An urgent knock sounded on Quil's door. I opened my eyes, not feeling as sleepy as I usually did, and heard the door opening already. Quil must have woken before me.

"What -- hey, man." Quil said. He sounded shocked.

I climbed out of bed and made my way slowly into the living room. Quil was standing with the door open, holding it. He was still standing in front of the visitor.

"Quil...?" I asked, wondering who the hell it was.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled, moving across to let the person in the hall in.

"Hey, Claire-bear." Embry greeted me, walking forward and hugging me tightly.

******************

**I hope everyone enjoyed it. And yay! Embry's back! I've been getting a lot of questions about him, so I'm kind of happy I finally got this chapter up.**

**Feel free to review!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	44. Chapter Forty Three

**Hey, guys! Yes, yes, I'm back. :) Now that I think about it, I probably would have felt better if I'd gotten this chapter up yesterday, but things have been really annoying lately (things = math homework), and I've been trying my hardest to make these chapters the best I can. Not getting anywhere near it, though... Not to mention my friends talked me into getting Twitter! That's why I've been neglecting you... No, it's not that great. I don't have any followers, so I just act like a stalker to other people...MUAH HA HA HAA!!**

**Thanks to these wonderful people; ****allgirlsloveavampire, MargoPix, 42nd Blackbone, MissEmbryRocks, vampiremom1221, Chickedy-pea, Amiko-san, lara, bookworm1545, CherryPiePage, Ginaaaa, xXGh0stXx, guys in my head, LittleDevilAuthor, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, LilaW08, xolanixo, alynawt, HeyI'mSarah, spannieren, leydyan22, CherryCrush1901 and twi-nighter for their reviews!**

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**Chapter 43**

**QPOV**

"What the heck are you doing here?" I asked Embry, smiling widely. It was so good to see him. I'd only been speaking with him through our wolf forms for so long. He didn't look any different, except his hair being a little longer, but I still studied him closely.

"Did you find your Imprint?" Claire asked excitedly, pulling him to the couch and sitting next to him.

He wrapped his arm around her and hugged her again, kissing the top of her head. I sat myself in the arm chair so I could see him better...even though my eyes were mostly on Claire, anyway.

"Naw, there wasn't any luck anywhere I went, so I came home." he said, not looking too down about it.

"You couldn't have scoured every inch of the planet already." I said, trying to remember the words he'd said years back, before he left. He'd seemed so sure of himself.

"No, I still believe she's out there somewhere." he told us. "I just had an epiphany."

"Oh, God." Claire said. "What is it?"

Embry chuckled and put his feet up on my coffee table. "Jeeze, Quil. This place looks exactly the same as the last time I was here. Weren't you thinking of redecorating any time soon?"

"Shut up and get on with your story." I moaned, rubbing my eyes. Even though I was ecstatic to see Embry here, I wished I was still in bed.

"Okay," he smiled and sunk further into the couch. "I was thinking--"

"That's a first." Claire muttered, pulling her feet up onto the couch.

Embry grinned and continued. "I was thinking about how y--" he cut himself off and gave me an urgent look with wide eyes. Claire looked up, wondering why his story had stopped. "I was thinking about how _Uley_ Imprinted on _Emily._" Oh, well done, Idiot. That's not conspicuous at all...

"And I remembered how Jake Imprinted on Nessie, and how close the three of us always used to be. And how he is now. I mean, he's changed." he gave me a look, telling me he was meaning someone else, as well as Jacob. "Remember? We had no problem swearing or anything. We just acted like normal teenagers, and then he Imprinted, and now he's changed. I wanna stay like I am."

"Surely he hasn't changed _that_ much...?" I said hesitantly.

"Oh, no, he has." Embry assured me. Jerk. "I just thought; well, I'm not going to be this age forever. One day I'll Imprint, most likely, and then I'll have to start aging with her. 'Til then, I'm going to live as much like my old self as I can." he said, looking satisfied with his little speech.

"I don't know how much of your old self you're going to be able to act like, Em. I mean, since I've started neglecting my family, my parents'd think it kinda weird if you showed up to stay most nights."

He shook his head. "You're an idiot. And you should talk to them more. Make room for more things in your life." he glanced at Claire, who was staring at the blank television screen, yawning widely.

"So what's going on with you two lately? Your boobs are still microscopic, I've noticed, Claire." he laughed as she turned around and elbowed him in the ribs.

"They're not _microscopic!_ Just because yours are bigger." she smirked.

"I got pecks." he said. "No, seriously, what's going on?"

"Claire's staying until she recovers from a cold. Her mom just had the baby." I told him.

"Oh, I forgot!" he said, turning back to Claire. "Is it a girl or boy?"

"Girl. Her name's Trinity. I've never actually met her before, because mom won't let me anywhere near her." she muttered, grabbing the remote off the coffee table. "Why'd you show up so early? The sun just came up!"

"Sorry." he said, grabbing the remote from her and turning it to the music channel. She smiled and sat back into the couch, watching the screen closely. "And I'm not going to stay at your parents."

"You've finally realized you have a family of your own?" I asked.

He snorted. "Hardly. Naw, I'm moving back in with you."

"Oh..." I looked to Claire, who was mouthing the song with the artist on the television. "Embry, Claire's staying here at the moment."

"So? She used to stay here while I lived with you. What's the difference?"

I hesitated. "Nothing. You can stay here." I didn't want to tell the truth in front of both of them and tell him that it was because sharing a bed with Claire was a different thing that it had been back then. Like Jacob had said, she was almost my age, and I kind of had a thing for her already. Okay, well, not _kind of_. She was definately the hottest girl I'd ever seen in my life. Add that to the most gorgeous personality and sense of humour, and she was my dream girl. Not to mention how good a cook she was.

I'd slept in her bed some of the nights during the time we had been in California, but it had felt different to when she was younger. Even taking a nap with her before while she had still been at her mother's house had been weirder. A good weird, though. Just kind of tempting.

She yawned and stood up from her seat next to Embry. "I'm going back to bed," she yawned. "See you at a more appropriate time." she kissed Embry's cheek, then hugged me, kissing my cheek too. I kissed the corner of her eye, and she ran down the hall to her room.

Embry looked at me with his eyebrows raised. "What?" I asked.

He smirked and focused on the TV. "Claire's looking pretty...nice these days."

"You're telling me."

"Does she have a boyfriend?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "Naw, she's had some pretty bad experiences with guys, and she's set on finding an Imprint."

"What if is never happens?" Embry opened his mouth in mock worriedness. I threw a cushion at him.

"Shut up."

***

**CPOV**

"Good morning." I said to Quil and Embry, walking out of my room for the second time that morning. The extra four hours of sleep had been pretty delightful.

"Morning, Claire-bear." Quil said. He was cooking breakfast with Embry. I scrunched my nose against the disgusting smell of burnt eggs and joined them in the tiny kitchen. I wished I'd thought it through better as soon as I was in there -- there was hardly any room for me to breathe with them in there, as well.

"You ruined your eggs." I said, chucking them out as I spoke. "And that's not a high enough temperature for you to cook bacon with."

"Whoa, we have another Emily!" Embry said, jumping up to sit on the counter.

I crossed my arms and gave him a look. "Embry, this is bacon and eggs."

He laughed loudly, got a soda can and walked into the living room to watch TV. "I'm so glad he's back. I really had trouble without his help." Quil said thoughtfully before turning back to his toast.

I shook my head and chucked out Embry's eggs, waving my hand in front of my face to try to get rid of the smell.

***

We went to First Beach, meeting Renesmee and Jacob there. I had missed the days with the five of us. They had always been so much fun, and ever since Embry left, I'd been wanting to spend time with my best friends. I got along so much better with these guys than anyone I went to school with.

"Do you have a date set for the wedding yet?" I asked Nessie, trying to be inconspicuous about my arms wrapped around Quil's neck as he walked along with me on his shoulders.

"No," Nessie shook her head. "Alice said she wants to plan everything perfectly, so there aren't any problems at all. That, and my mother wants to know if we should invite Renée or not..."

"Wait a second," Embry said, holding up his hand. "I thought you guys weren't allowed to get married until Nessie was, like, seventeen?"

"No, Edward was talked into it while we were still in California." Jake said, grinning as he pulled Nessie into him and kissed her hair.

"I need to phase more..." Embry mumbled to himself.

"Back to what we were talking about," I shot Embry a playful glare. "You're inviting Renée?"

"I don't know...Mom said we probably should." Nessie sighed and looked at the water as she spoke.

"Does she even know about you?" I asked her.

She shook her head and turned back to me. "No, no one's told her about anything since my parent's wedding. Mom said that she picks up on too many things and she'd get more and more suspiscious until she worked it out."

"But surely she wouldn't send a mob after you..."

"No, probably not, but no one wants her freaking out or anything. We don't know for sure how she'll act, but we're betting she wouldn't take it cooly." she snorted, looking a little worried.

"Why is it all of a sudden that you're wondering whether she should come and see Bella again?" Quil asked.

Nessie frowned and looked forward. "Everyone's saying she'll be starting to get curious. Mom visited her while she was living down here as a human, and all of a sudden there's been a thirteen year gap where they haven't seen each other. Not even talking to her over the phone's enough now. She wants to know why Mom isn't dead with all the diseases and problems she's had in the last decade. She's threatened at least ten times to come up and check on her herself."

"Yeah, that'd be pretty hard to cover up." I muttered. "Just...invite her down. She can't hate her own daughter for not being human anymore. Maybe she'll see her changed body as some side-effect from the diseases she's had." I knew that wouldn't work. Nessie's family hadn't changed at all since the last time Renée had seen them. That would be weird. And also, Bella's new appearance would be too close to the rest of the family's that Renée would know something was up. They were just going to have to cope through it all if Bella insisted on inviting her mother.

"Hmm..." Nessie lightened up after a few seconds. "Claire! We should have one of our sleepovers tonight!"

"Whoa, that was out of the blue!" Jacob said, grabbing her around her waist and pulliing her up into his arms. "And what am I supposed to do without you for a while night? I know all guys are banned from the mansion at one of these sleepovers."

"I know, it'll be hard for my heart to keep beating without you there, too, Jake." she giggled, kissing his lips softly. I swallowed enviously and looked away until Nessie decided to continue. Thankfully, it didn't take long. "You're sick, so your mother won't care, and Quil's got you until you get better, so I should have at least one night. Not to mention you can't harm anyone being sick in my house! It's the perfect place!"

"I don't know..." I looked down at Quil, who couldn't see me, but seemed to know I was wondering how he'd accept the idea.

"Sure you can go, Claire-bear. You deserve a night of getting pampered by Nessie's crazy aunts." he laughed as I swatted the top of his head.

"That's not _all_ we do!" Nessie said, pretending to be offended. "The whole night's dedicated to gossip!"

"Oh, then I'm _definitely_ going to be wishing I was there." Jacob said sarcastically, dropping Nessie back on her feet.

She shook her head at him before pushing him as hard as she could toward the water. He stumbled in it, then straightened himself up, taking after her as she ran down the beach, screaming and laughing.

***

"Are you sure you got everything you need?"

"Quil, I got everything. I'm fine."

"If you remember something...or feel too sick, just give me a call and I'll come straight over and pick you up, okay?" he said, handing me my bag he'd insisted on carrying to the entrance of the Cullen's mansion.

"I promise." I said as I dropped the bag next to the couch and looked back up at him. He'd taken his shirt off before we were at the beach, and hadn't replaced yet. God, he was so hot.

He bent down and kissed the corner of my eye before mussing my hair. "I'll see you soon."

"Miss you." I said as he turned for the door.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Miss you, more."

"Aw, that's nice." Emmett said, grabbing my hand and spinning me around to face him. "Wait 'til he finds out what I had planned for tonight..."

"Emmett, you're leaving!" Alice said as she appeared in the room. "I've organised everyone's nights. The guys are getting out of here while the girls stay in for makeovers and gossip."

"Yeah, about that, Alice--" Bella started from Edward's lap on the couch.

"Nope. Won't hear anything of it." Alice said, shaking her head. Bella smiled, looking a little annoyed and kissed her husband. "You two _need _a night apart. The more of those, the less painful it'll be to leave each other again." she rolled her eyes as Edward's arms wrapped tightly around Bella.

Rosalie and Renesmee were looking through a magazine of bridal gowns and didn't even show a hint of a smile as I burst into laughter from the tiny Alice pushing massive Emmett from the room and into the yard outside the house. She waved as he and Carlisle started a slow pace toward the forest.

"See you so soon you won't be able to miss me." Edward said, kissing the tip of Bella's nose softly before giving her a gentle kiss on her lips.

"I'll miss you." she assured him, clinging to his shirt as he pulled back.

"Bye, Jazz!" Alice said, jumping into Jasper's arms as he walked down the stairs and attacking his mouth with hers. When they both pulled back he gave her a questioning look. "Just wanted to fit in with the rest of 'em," she shrugged, looking extremely innocent as she unwrapped her legs from his waist and landed lightly on the floor.

"See you when we're allowed to come back." he said, kissing her forehead so gently his lips barely touched her skin and flying out the door to join the rest of the Cullen men. Alice turned around to smile at us as the four of them disappeared into the forest.

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**Hope you all liked it! Now I'm off to sit outside because the temperature dropped dramatically since this morning...it's almost cold! Not really...**

**Chlowie, xo**


	45. Chapter Forty Four

**No...you serious?! Chlowie's back already?!**

**Yes, she is! :D I'm just trying to get these up as quickly as I can so Claire and Quil can run off, into the sunset together sooner, hence taking a lot of pressure off my shoulders.**

**Thank yous to; ****xolanixo, allgirlsloveavampire, HeyI'mSarah, queenybee8289, MissEmbryRocks, xXGh0stXx, Chickedy-pea, MargoPix, spannieren, bookworm1545, amiko-san, guys in my head, twi-nighter, Asha123, XxsweetcakexX, Shouldna, lara austin, Ginaaaa and alynawt for reviewing!**

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**Chapter 44**

Alice had us all get into some really cute pajamas, even though most of us didn't need to wear them, and then we all sat in the living room and watched a sappy movie. By the end, Nessie and I had tear tracks runnning down our cheeks and the others were looking like they would have cried if they could have.

"I hope I find something like that." I sniffed thickly.

"A letter?" Rose asked me, sounding slightly confused.

I shook my head. "No, something like the bond the two of them had."

"You will, Claire." Bella promised me, smiling sincerely.

"I hope so. It doesn't look too much like it at the moment, though." I sighed and started playing with my fingers.

"You're only fifteen." Esme said softly. She wrapped her cold, hard arm around my shoulders and kissed my forehead. "And even if you're thinking about all the other couples you've seen that don't have anything like that, keep your chin up. You'll definitely get it."

"Thanks," I laughed, kind of glad they were so sure.

"Okay, let's get started on our nails." Alice sung, jumping up and grabbing a huge box full of nail polishes from the table in the dining room.

***

"How long do crushes take to get over?" I asked Nessie desperately once Bella had convinced Alice to let us escape to Edward's old room for sleep. The four of them were probably still listening to anything we said up here.

"I don't know," Nessie said. She sounded a little useless, though I didn't blame her for anything. "I've only ever had one crush, and I got him almost straight away...I guess it's got to be harder if you spend so much time with him. It'd _have_ to be easier if you never saw each other."

"But I can't just stop seeing him!" I whined. "We've been seeing each other almost every day since I was two years old!"

"I don't know, Claire." She said, as if she were bursting at the seams. "Just...don't give up on him yet."

"Nothing'll ever happen," I said in a sing-song voice as I rolled over to face the door. I screamed a lot louder than I thought I was able to and sat up, ready to try and defend myself against the silouette standing in the doorway.

Then, tiny little Alice snorted and flicked the light on. "Relax, you idiot. I couldn't help overhearing."

"I can only imagine how hard you were concentrating on what we were saying..." I muttered, cluthing my hand to the left side of my chest as if it would help get my heart beat to its normal rate again.

"Well, I think I can offer some advice." she said, jumping onto the foot of the massive bed and looking back at us, waiting for one of us to reply.

"And...that is...?" Nessie pressed.

"Oh," Alice grinned sweetly and rocked back, crossing her legs. "Claire, you should act kind of...sexy."

I snorted and started laughing loudly. "That's just...no..."

"Not like..._sexy. _Just try to get his attention in that basic area. Make him notice how old you are now." she said, nodding mischeviously.

"But what if he thinks of me as a child? That could turn out kind of weird."

"Ah, don't worry about _that_, Claire! If he still thinks of you as a child, he won't even notice how you're trying to act!"

"You make everything seem so bright and wonderful, Alice." I said, giving her a minor glare.

She rolled her eyes and smiled back. "Whatever. I have some other ideas..."

So Nessie and I were deprived, yet again, of sleep until Esme and Rosalie came up and had to literally drag Alice out of the room to go downstairs with them again.

"Maybe I should just give up on Quil and go for someone more...available." I said to Nessie as quietly as I could, as if I had the chance that Alice wouldn't hear me.

She sighed and sat up so we were facing each other. "Don't. Just wait a few more months--"

"But I know he's never going to like me!" I said desperately.

Nessie tilted her head to the side, widened her eyes more than I thought anyone was capable, pulled up one side of her mouth and started nodding. I raised and eyebrow worriedly and turned away from her. "God, that's creepy..."

She sighed and pulled me back down onto my pillows. "That's enough talk about it tonight. I'll see you in the morn...later today. Love you, Claire. Goodnight." she leaned over and kissed me softly before jumping up, switching the light off and hopping back in.

I fell asleep surprisingly fast, considering all the things running through my head. I still had no idea what I was going to do about Quil. And hadn't that been the whole point of this sleepover? All I had ended up with was a bunch of confusing solutions to the things I still wasn't positively sure of.

This sucked.

I probably wasn't even going to consider Alice's advice. It was just...odd. I didn't even know how to act sexy! Even though I had had a lot of practise while prancing around in front of the mirror as I listened to my favorite songs the past few years...yeah, let's not go there.

Maybe I should just keep acting like his friend. If things were meant to happen, they would. Besides, I was still overly-keen on the idea of someone Imprinting on me, so I wasn't about try to get a boyfriend while I still had that running through my head. Why did I have to know Quil so well?!

I shook my head to myself and finally ended up closing my eyes and nestling further into my pillow, gently cradling my Quil doll in my arms.

***

I was a little surprised when I woke the next morning and Quil wasn't there. He'd made a habit of keeping so close an eye on me that he usually appeared when I was somewhere even the slightest bit out of the ordinary.

Nessie was awake, and was reading a book. She looked up, smiling as I pushed myself up with one of my arms. I frowned against the light coming from the wall-sized window and looked toward the other side of the room. It didn't help much. There were thousands of CDs there, and they just reflected the glare back to me.

I shook my head and sat up. "Morning."

"Good morning." she sung. She marked the page she was up to and set her book on the foot of the bed. "Want to go down to breakfast? Rosalie and Alice started cooking for you half an hour ago."

"Nessie, you should've told them no!" I complained, remembering last time they had decided to cook breakfast for me. The end result had been four plates of different things. I hadn't even been able to finish off one plate, even though it had tasted pretty good for a group of people that never ate themselves. Of course, Edward had helped them last time. Jacob always said he was the best cook of the house. I didn't even know if Alice had allowed him to come back yet.

She shrugged. "I couldn't be bothered getting up, and I didn't want to talk up here unless you woke up. I'll give you a few minutes to work on that...you look like you're about to pass out..."

She hopped out of the huge bed, changed out of her pajamas and into a nice, blue dress and left the room.

I sucked in a deep breath and turned toward the window wall again, my eyes now adjusted better to the light in the room. From where I was sitting, I could see a lot of the trees and rocks outside, as well as the bare patch of grass that the Cullens used as their back yard. I'd spent so much time down there as a child, runnning around with my three best friends. I hadn't had any doubt as to what I was doing back then. Quil, Jacob and Nessie were my friends, and I thought of them all the same way, even though I was a lot closer to Quil than Jacob and Nessie.

My eyes glazed over as I wandered further away from my surroundings and into my daydreams until I could no longer see the beaten-up rock in the yard of the Cullen's mansion. I blinked a couple of times and looked toward the open door as I heard Esme call me from downstairs.

I walked to the stairs slowly, not bothering to get into my day clothes first. Jacob was in the living room and he and Nessie were talking quietly as Emmett laughed loudly with Jasper at something on the television. Bella and Edward were seated on Edward's piano stool as he played a tune to her I had heard a few times before, while her head rested dreamily on his shoulder. Carlisle was seated next to Esme at the dining room table, and Rosalie and Alice were bickering to each other in the kitchen as they put numerous things onto a couple of plates.

"Rose, she doesn't _like_ onion!" Alice complained, grabbing her beautiful sister's hand that was holding the dish she was trying to put on the plate in front of her.

"Do you really thing I take _that _much notice to a human, Alice?!" Rose retorted, pulling her hand away from a plate and walking quickly to the couch Jacob and Nessie were seated on. She handed the frying pan to Jacob, who took the bowl of it without any trouble, even though I could still see the steam rising out of it. Alice froze and looked toward the steps, which I was just reaching the bottom of.

"Morning, Claire!" she sung, smiling widely. "Please excuse my darling sister this morning, just like any other morning, because she seems to be in a rather bad mood."

"She's a bitch." Edward muttered, louder than he needed as he ended Bella's song. I giggled and made my way further into the dining room, taking a seat at the table across from Carlisle and Esme, who still had her eye on Edward after his outburst.

"How're you feeling?" Carlisle asked me, reaching across to feel my forehead.

I winced a little as his freezing skin touched my own. "Better. But my nose is still running."

"That'll take about a week to clear up. But your temperature's gone down already, and you're looking a lot better. You should be able to go home soon." he said, taking his wife's hand as Alice sat in the seat next to me and sat two plates on the table in front of me.

"Thanks," I said, looking at all of the food. "Alice, you had better be helping me with this."

She snorted. "You've been trying to get me to eat again since last time I did with you."

"Your face was funny."

"Yours will be, too, if you keep it up." she threatened, grinning widely.

I rolled my eyes and buttered a piece of toast with yolk from the eggs they'd cooked for me, put bacon on it and folded it in half like a sandwich. I bit the end off and chewed it slowly. I still couldn't taste things properly, but it was a lot better than it had been. I could now distinguish chocolate from oatmeal. At least I couldn't taste Cheerios with a cold...then again, I couldn't taste them while I was perfectly healthy, either.

"If you're still worried about finishing that off, Claire," Jacob said, standing from the couch. "I can give you a hand?"

"Please." I laughed.

He took the seat next to me and Nessie looked out of the window with interest. "The sun's out." she murmured quietly.

"I know, and I was so excited!" Alice complained. "I was going to take the two of you out today!" her head dropped slightly to the side and her eyes glazed over for a moment. I didn't think this out of the ordinary. Alice had had a heap of visions while I was around. "It's going to be a whole three and a half hours until the clouds fill the sky again, and Quil'll probably want Claire back at his house by noon!" she whined, dropping her head on the table in front of her.

"I'm sure Quil would let you keep her for a couple of extra hours." Jasper said softly, leaning over her and kissing the back of her head as he walked over to join us in the kitchen. He gave me a small smile as we locked eyes. Jasper had never become as close as the other Cullens had with me. Even Rosalie had had more conversations with me, and I had the slight drift that I pissed her off. Nessie said it was just her problem, though.

"Oh!" Alice said excitedly. "We could invite him! We could take a couple of cars and all of us could go down! You guys never come shopping with me anymore!" she accused, turning in her seat and narrowing her eyes at all of her family members. "We'll all go!"

"Actually, Alice, Rose and I kind of had the day planned..." Emmett trailed off, sounding but not looking in the least guilty.

Edward cringed. "Emmett, _please!"_

His big brother chuckled. "Can't help myself."

"And I was going to do a bit more work on the house." Esme said soflty. "Honey, weren't you going to help me?"

"I told you I would." Carlisle said, resting his hand on her thigh.

"Carlisle, Esme, Nessie already said we didn't want a house for our wedding present." Jacob told them.

Esme waved her finger at him. "No, no, no, no, no! This is something that happens every first marriage in this family, or whenever it's asked for, Jacob Black! You will _not _deny me the pleasure of building you a house. Do you _both_ understand me?"

"Yes..." Jacob (looking a little guilty) and Nessie sighed softly.

"Won't _anyone_ come with me?!" Alice complained, making everyone turn their heads back to her. "Jasper?!"

"I'm sorry, Alice, I have things to do..." he said, his eyes flicking to where Edward and Bella were on the piano stool.

"What things?" Alice asked, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "You had nothing planned for today last time I checked..." her eyes glazed over again for a few seconds. "Stop thinking up different excuses, Jasper! You could just tell me you don't want to come!"

"But I didn't want to upset you..." He said, his face scrunching up. "I just don't think I can handle another shopping trip this month."

"Why not?" Alice asked, her already high voice getting higher. "What else would you rather do?"

Jasper closed his eyes for a few seconds, and I could feel myself getting calmer. He was obviously trying to settle Alice down. She settled lower in her seat and picked at the purple nail polish on her fingers. "I _guess_ it's okay...even though this is _completely_ unfair!"

He laughed and kissed her cheek. "You'll forgive me. I'll make sure of it."

"Oh my God," Edward murmured, putting his head in his hands. "What is it with everyone's stray thougts this morning..."

Emmett chuckled while watching the television and Alice turned back to me and Jacob. "Well, looks like it'll just be us...and Quil, if he wants to join us."

In the end, Alice's Porsche was filled. She and Nessie were in the front, while I was wedged between Quil and Jacob in the back seat. That God it was a freezing day for summer. The car had all of its windows rolled down and I was still sweating in between them.

"So what, exactly is the main reason for this shopping trip?" Jacob asked, his eyes locking on a fancy car that drove past the window.

Alice sighed heavily and turned onto the main road of Port Angeles. "How many times do I have to tell you, Jacob; you never need a reason for a shopping trip."

Jacob chuckled quietly and wrapped his hands around Nessie's chair, grabbing her hands in front of her. I watched them for a moment, then turned to look out of the window, just as Alice stopped her car.

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**So...yeah! I'll try to get the next chapter up really soon, as well. Don't know how I'll go about it, though. Wow, what an amazing line! Three rhyming words! :)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	46. Chapter Forty Five

**Hey, everyone! It's so good to be back!**

**First of all, I would like to say how truly sorry I am for not getting this up sooner. There has been so much happening at the moment for me, and I think I was actually starting to have updating withdrawls a while back... Some of the reasons I was away for such a long time are; 1. The internet in my house had a fit and stopped working. It took forever to get it back up and working again, and this is my first day back in the cyber world again! Hooray! 2. We came home from school one day and my mother's partner had left without any warning. And he took a whole heap of our stuff, too... We still have no idea why, but he hasn't been in contact with us enough to find out. My mother's still stressing out becuase of our money problems from it... 3. My grandfather was diagnosed with melanoma, and we still don't know exactly how it's going. There was a few other things, but I won't go into detail, and some of them take too long to get out, so I'm sorry, but I hope I've convinced you that my tardiness couldn't be helped!**

**I'll be posting at least two more chapters tomorrow, and I'll be saying my thank yous to people who've reviewed since the last time I was on then. But I love you all, and you know who you are until then!**

**Sorry again, guys...**

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**Chapter 45**

"Let's go!" Alice said happily, already hopping out of the car and opening Quil's door. He climbed out and I followed after him, smiling widely as I saw all the people with their heads turned toward us. I loved hanging out with people who weren't human.

Alice reached in, grabbed her purse and put it on her shoulder. "Where're we going first?" she asked us, looking around questioningly.

Nessie led us to a few shops, and we made our way from there. I bought two t-shirts and a new skirt, shaking my head when Alice offered to pay for them. They were cheap ones, anyway.

"Ooh, we have to go in here!" Alice said, stopping out the front of a cute-looking shop with a lot of different dresses in the window. It was surprisingly spacious inside, and Alice dragged Nessie and me to a rack of dresses immediately.

"Alice..." I started, studying one of the dresses I'd pulled out hesitantly. "I don't know if I feel comfortable trying these on with the guys around..."

"Oh, come on, Claire! That's the whole point of this shop! You don't have to _buy_ anything. It's not like we go to a lot of dress-up parties anyway." she said, pulling out a white dress and holding it up to me.

"Aw, this is cute." Nessie mumured to herself as she grabbed a little red dress of the other end of the rack.

I nodded to her to try it on and turned back to Alice. "What do you mean; 'The whole point of this shop?!'"

She gave me a pouty look and raised one of her eyebrows. She gave a quick glance to the guys, who were still on their way in this shop and talking and laughing loudly, then looked back up at me. "We have to make Quil notice you!" she said, so quietly I had to read her lips to work out what she was saying. "And what better way for him to notice you than skanky dress-up costumes?"

I shook my head. "_So_ not going to happen."

"We used to dress up in these types of things without the guys around..." Nessie muttered. "And it was always fun! Let's just ignore them and act like idiots."

Alice nodded to me, and then Nessie started with her. Jake and Quil had reached us now, and they were discussing Jacob's new mechanic's store. From what I could figure out, Jake had offered Quil a job there. He hadn't worked since we'd returned to La Push from California. Oliver had been sent by Lisa to tell him that he'd been fired.

I sighed and grabbed the outfit Alice was holding out to me. They both smiled widely and Nessie followed me into the change rooms.

"These wings go with it!" Alice said, throwing the wings at me as I was about to pull the curtain closed.

It took me about three minutes to work out how the dress was supposed to go, another minute trying to get the socks on properly, and then I had trouble with the wings. Nessie slid under the door blocking her change room from mine and stood up, already in her costume, which made her look impossibly more beautiful. I sighed and stared at her enviously. How did she look magnificent in _everything?!_

"I'll help." she muttered quietly, holding onto the tops of the wings and letting me slide my arms through. "Aww, you look so beautiful, Claire!" she spun me around so we were both facing the tiny mirror in the cubicle.

I'm sure the costumes weren't meant for people my age, but it did fit perfectly. The dresses were just too short to be considered anything but costumes. I just hated that Nessie's chest was so much bigger than mine. She pulled her dress off perfectly.

Alice's head suddenly peeped through the curtain and that evil glint lit up her eyes. "You both look great! Now come out and show the guys."

Nessie skipped forward immediately, but I hung back. "Claire, either you'll walk out by yourself, or I'm dragging you out. This is all for you, remember?" Alice said, grinning mischeviously.

I shook my head. I _did _want Quil to notice me, but I didn't want him to think I was _trying_ to get him to notice me. That'd just make me come across as a pathetic loser. Alice cocked an eyebrow and grabbed my forearm, pulling me out into the main part of the shop, where Nessie was throwing a million different poses to the guys. She turned around, smiling as we approached where she was standing.

I kept my eyes on the ground until Alice said we could go back into the stalls and change. I didn't even want to look at Quil. That had to have been one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Nessie had laughed and made me pose with her, but I wasn't as into it as I would have been with just my girlfriends. Or Quil _before_ I developed this huge, stupid crush on him.

I ran back to the changing stalls as quickly as I could, ripping off the dress and grabbing my skirt. Nessie was changed and in my cubicle before I had gotten my skirt on properly and leaned against the wall in the corner. She picked up my shirt and handed it to me lazily, folding the dress I'd thrown on the floor. "You really did look gorgeous in this." she told me casually. She walked a little closer and put her lips to my ear. "And Quil was watching you the whole time...with pretty amazed eyes, might I add."

"I doubt it." I mumbled, hoping Quil's hearing wasn't good enough to have heard her. Nessie wouldn't have said it loud enough for him to hear, anyway. That's why she was my best girl friend. She kept what I wanted private to herself.

She grabbed my face and held it gently, pushing images into my own mind.

_Nessie puts her hands on her hips and slouches onto one leg, turning her face sideways to Jacob and puts on the sexiest face she can. He laughs and shakes his head. The curtain behind Nessie is head opening, and she turns, smiling at Alice and Claire, who is looking extremely uncomfortable and is staring at the black and white tiled floor._

_Turning back to face the guys, Nessie laughs mentally at Quil, who has sat up straighter and is looking at Claire, obviously surprised._

I pulled my face out of Nessie's hands with some difficulty and folder my arms. "How do I know you didn't just change that to make me feel better?"

She pouted. "You know how crappy those things turn out when I try to change them. That was real."

"Sure, sure." I mumbled. I heard Jacob chuckle from outside. He always did when I said that, but it was just too darn addictive.

Nessie threw both of the dresses we had tried on over the top of the cubicle door and grabbed my shoes, holding them out for me to put my feet into. She laced them up in under ten seconds, then pulled the curtain back and dropped herself in Jacob's lap. I chose the safer option of sitting next to Quil, even though I had spent a lot of time sitting in his lap in the past.

"Where's Alice?" I asked after a few seconds, looking around for the tiny girl. She was handing her credit card to a young girl at the counter on the other side of the store. I exchanged a look with Nessie and jumped up from the bench we were all seated on, bounding over to Alice. "Uhh...Alice? What do you think you're doing?" I asked her as the girl handed her a bag.

"Buying your costumes." Alice said, holding up the bag so I'd have an easier time seeing.

_"Why?"_ I hissed.

Alice looked up at me and smiled innocently. "Because you looked so pretty in them, and I want to buy something."

"You're always buying things..."

"So I don't see why this would be a problem. Besides, you won't need to worry about making a Halloween costume this year..."

"It's not even August yet." I said through gritten teeth.

She shrugged. "You don't _have_ to ever wear it." she said, smiling as she took her credit card back from the girl across the counter. "Thank you!"

We walked back to the others, who were already standing and waiting for us. "Food court?" Jacob asked as soon as we were close enough for me to hear him properly.

"You just had breakfast!" Alice whined.

"Hey, you've already started your fun. My turn." Jacob said, leading the way out of the store without waiting for a reply from Alice.

***

By the time we had gotten back to the Cullen's house and grabbed my things, the sun had started going down. It was completely dark when Quil parked his truck at his apartment.

He, of course, insisted on carrying my things inside. I followed behind with my shoulder bag, which contained my toiletries and Quil doll, as well as the medicine Carlisle had given me to rid myself of my cold quicker. I had no idea why he kept things like that in their house, where no one ever got sick.

"Idiot..." Quil muttered as we walked past Embry, who was passed out on the couch with the television magazing falling out of his hand. I laughed quietly and walked into the room I usually stayed in, only to pause in the doorway and turned back around to face Quil.

"We...should put your things in my room. Embry's moved back into yours..." he said thoughtfully.

"Oh." I trudged into his room and put my things at his door.

"If you want to stay in that room I can tell Embry to stay at Jake's tonight?" Quil asked me.

I shook my head. "No, it's okay. I'll just stay in here...unless you'd prefer me in there?" When had things gotten so _awkward _between us? I thought _I _was the only one who had noticed, but apparently not. Quil was never this hesitant about anything involving the two of us. This sucked...

"No!" he said, shaking his head. "No, you can stay in here. Of course I don't mind."

"Thanks." I said, smiling sweetly and opening my bag to get out a pair of pajamas. I skipped to the bathroom with one more smile to him over my shoulder.

Oh God. This could be awkward between us for a reason... Crap! What if he knew I like him! Oh, that was probably it! I was so nervous around him that he'd noticed how hard I'd been trying to correct myself for him. This was so _horrible!_

I took a while in the shower, but that wasn't unusual for me. I got out, took a few minutes getting into my pajamas, then spent a couple of minutes parting my hair how I wanted it, even though I knew it was probably going to go messy again as soon as I put my head on the pillow.

I brushed my teeth, washed my face twice (I was really in the mood to get rid of all my spots and zits), and stared at the wall for a couple of minutes before walking out of the bathroom again.

Quil was sitting at the foot of his bed, flicking through a car magazing when I walked in. "That's my shirt..." he said, noticing my pajamas.

I pulled out the hem and leaned onto one of my legs, swaying from side to side. "I like sleeping in your shirts. They're comfy."

"Says she who sleeps in her underwear." he chuckled.

I blushed so much I didn't know I could until then, went to my bag, put my day clothes into it and played with my hair a bit until I decided I was back to my normal color enough to turn back around. "It doesn't matter anyway. You don't fit in these shirts anymore."

"Are you saying I got fat?" he asked me suspiciously.

I giggled. "No..."

"So what are you saying, Miss Young?"

I crossed my arms across my chest. "I'm saying that you're too muscly to fit into reasonable clothes anymore."

"Girls love it." he said playfully, flexing his biscep.

_Oh, trust me. I know..._ I thought, watching his arm as I climbed into the side of his bed I used to sleep on before Embry left.

He turned off the light and climbed into bed next to me. He actually climbed under the blankets, but I knew it was just because I was there. I'd be kicking off the blanket in my sleep in less than an hour, though. His body heat'd have me sweating under the blanket within ten minutes.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked me, playing with a lock of my hair on the side of my pillow. I nodded, knowing he'd be able to see me in the pitch black room.

"My nose is still a little blocked, but Carlisle said those pills'd clear it up straight away." Okay, how come I couldn't take a stupid hint about my underwear without turning into a tomato, but I could talk about my mucas with him?!

"Just tell me if you need anything." he said, leaning forward and kissing the corner of my eye. I kissed his jaw as he pulled back and rolled over so he couldn't see the wide smile on my face.

"Thanks, Quil. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Claire-bear."

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**I don't know how well this chapter went, because I kind of rushed throught it to get it up quicker, so if there's a few mistakes, just ignore them, please.**

**I hope you're all not too mad!**

**Sorry again!**

**I'll be back tomorrow.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	47. Chapter Forty Six

**I'm** **back already! Yay! I love being able to update! :D**

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**Chapter 46**

Mmmm...you know when you're on the edge of sleep and you know you can go right back into it because there's nothing around to wake you up? I was right there. I felt so...perfect...

Quil's light snore made me eyes snap open, taking in his face, which was less than two inches from my own.

I swallowed and blinked a couple of times to get my eyesight back to normal. By that time I was well aware of my right leg between both of Quil's, as well as his hand on my lower back, pulling me into him. Things could be so good, but bad at the same time...

I was trying to pull away from him as slowly as I could so I wouldn't wake him when he yawned and nestled his head further into his pillow. I froze, hoping he wouldn't wake up and find us like this. I'd never be able to live it down. He just swallowed and pulled me closer still, so his face was in my hair. He was so cute.

I tried to get back to sleep a couple of times, but I couldn't. There were just too many things running through my head. Things like; _Oh, crap! What if he wakes up and finds us like this? That'd be so embarrassing! _or; _Would he mind too much if I moved in another inch and kissed him?_

It was over ten minutes later when I heard Embry's laugh at the door. "Aw, look at your guys! Claire, I know you're awake. I can tell your breathing when you're awake apart from when you're sleeping."

_Stupid werewolves with their stupid supersonic hearing..._ I lifed my head just a little bit so I could see him and gave him a small smile. "Morning." I mouthed.

He smiled and motioned with his head for me to join him out of Quil's room. "You can move without waking him up. You could bash him over the head with a cricket bat and he wouldn't wake up."

I laughed quietly and sat up, moving as carefully as I could just incase he _did _wake up. I blushed as I pulled my leg from inbetween his and mussed my hair a little before looking up at Embry. "I made breakfast." he said.

I lifted my top lip warily and followed him through the hall and into the kitchen, where I saw two bowls of Cap'n Crunch on the counter. "Whoa, you did well." I said, taking a seat and putting a spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

"Yeah, but it took me a while." he murmured. We sat in silence for a few seconds before he spoke again. "So, you and Quil, huh?"

"No..." I said slowly, looking at my food.

"Have the two of you done anything together?"

"No, Embry!" I said, looking up and staring at him in amazement. "Where're the questions coming from?!"

"You just looked really comfortable together there..." he shrugged.

"Well, thanks, I guess." I said, pushing us into anothing silence, this one more awkward.

He stopped eating and put his bowl in the sink. "You like him." he said after a few minutes.

I stopped chewing and looked up at him with one of my eyebrows raised. "What made you say that?"

He snorted. "My eyesight. You don't hide it very well, Claire-bear."

I lowered my voice to a whisper and leaned forward. "You don't think he knows, do you?"

He shook his head. "No way. He's still too worried --" he cut himself off and sucked in a huge breath. "Quil's never been the most observant out of all of us. Even with the new added senses and everything he still fails at a lot."

"Please don't tell anyone, Em."

"I wasn't going to, Claire." he said, kissing my head. "How's your cold?"

"I think it's almost completely gone. I just have a stuffy nose and a cough when I laugh too hard."

"Want some drugs?"

"Carlisle gave me some that I've been taking." I sighed, taking my bowl to the sink and putting it on Embry's. "What're we doing?"

"We're sitting in Quil's kitchen, talking about your mucas."

"You're an idiot."

"Uhh...well, I guess we have to wait until Quil gets up. Then what do you say to visiting a few people? I've really missed everyone." he said, dropping onto the couch and changing the channel.

I sat down next to him and focused on the television screen. "You shouldn't have left."

"I still _want_ an Imprint. I just want to wait for a few years. Have a while to be Embry."

"You never know. You and Quil might live for a thousand years without finding your true loves. Are you sure you made the right choice of coming back?"

"Shut up, Claire." he chuckled, then stopped. "What are you doing?" he asked warily.

"Going to Imprint anytime soon, Em?" I asked him, making my eyes level with him and opening them so they were as wide as they could go.

He narrowed his eyes at me and shook his head. "What're you two doing?" Quil's voice came from the hall behind us.

I looked up and smiled at him. "Morning, Quil! We were just making sure Embry wasn't supposed to Imprint on me."

"Why were you doing that?" he asked, walking into the kitchen and grabbing an apple.

"You know how much I want an Imprint." I sighed. "And Embry almost claims he _doesn't _want one anymore. I always think it's funny when something to do with Embry doesn't go according to his plan."

"You're such a great friend." Embry said, pushing my shoulder. I knew he was trying to be gentle, but I still almost fell off the couch.

When Quil had finished his breakfast and everyone was ready for the day, we went to Paul and Rachel's house. Paul nearly tackled Embry to the ground when he first saw him.

"Get off me!" Embry said, standing up straight and making Paul fall to the ground. He laughed and stood back up again, hugging Embry tightly for a few seconds.

"How was the world?" he asked, shaking his shoulder.

"Alright. I kind of missed talking to people in person, though." Embry murmured.

Paul looked behind him, where Quil and I were standing. "Where's the lucky lady?"

"There isn't one." Embry told him indifferently. "I decided I'm just going to be myself until the time's right."

"Aw, we're all still ourselves!" Paul said happily, whacking Embry on the back of his head.

Embry raised his eyebrows. "Paul, your momma's a fat mole."

"Then why'd you do her?!" Paul shot back, making all of us laugh, except for Embry.

"See?" he muttered bitterly. "If you hadn't Imprinted on Rachel, I wouldn't be standing right now."

"But he's better this way." Rachel said, wrapping her arms around Paul and ducking her head under his arm. "And Embry, I'm very happy that you didn't find your true love."

"Thanks, Rach." Embry said, smiling falsely.

The rest of the day consisted on us sitting in Paul and Rachel's tiny house and talking, laughing and ripping each other off. I wasn't as in to the conversation as the others, but I was still happy to be there. Kim invited Emily, Sam, Hannah and Toby around for lunch, and we all sat out on their porch and ate sandwiches Paul had thrown together. I'd never tell him, but they weren't very good.

"So...you saved up all that money, spent more time than you ever have before out of La Push, and it was all for nothing?" Sam asked, smirking as he took his third sandwich.

Embry shrugged with his mouth full of his twelfth. "I just decided I wanted different things to what I did before."

"You'll be over it by next year..." Quil sighed, reaching for his eighth sandwich.

***

"I think I'm completely healthy!" I announced at dinner that night. The three of us were sitting on the floor in Quil's living room, watching a comedy that had come on. "Look;" I cleared my throat to prove my point, and smiled when it made a normal, clear sound.

"We're happy for you." Embry said through a mouthful of Thai food.

"Does that mean you'll be leaving for your house tomorrow?" Quil asked me.

I shrugged. "If Mom will let me back in the house. Oh! I'll finally get to meet Trinity properly!"

"Lucky duck." said Embry. I ignored him and went to change into my pajamas.

We watched the end of the movie, then Embry went to have a shower. I yawned widely, and Quil did at the same time. "Tired?" he asked with a low chuckle. I nodded, rubbing my eyes sleepily and stood up. I looked at him, wondering if he'd follow.

"I'll be right in as soon as Embry gets out of the shower. I need to brush my teeth."

I nodded and started walking into his room. I climbed under his covers that had been left messy from this morning and nestled into his pillow, holding my stuffed Quil dog close to me. I grinned at how pathetic I was, keeping it for this long. I couldn't even remember getting it, actually. All I could remember was calling it a wolf in the past. Right now, I couldn't tell if it were a wolf or something else. It was just a stuffed dog...

I tried to get to sleep as quickly as I could. It was kind of embarrassing being so close to him through the whole night. Especially because my heart picked up such a fast rate every time he came close to me. If I was already asleep when he came in, what were the chances that it'd still try to get out of my chest?

I wasn't as lucky as I had been hoping. It usually took me over half an hour to fall to sleep on normal nights, and telling myself to fall to sleep was just going to make me stay awake for longer.

I didn't roll over to face him when he came in. I heard him take his shirt off _(Don't you _dare_ turn around, Claire! You've seen his abs a million times before!)_ and lay down on top of the covers. His left arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me into him and I opened my eyes slowly, smiling at his face above mine.

"'Night, Claire-bear." he said softly.

"Goodnight." I said, trying not to pass out. He was right there...

He kissed the corner of my eye, brushed a lock of my hair back and switched off his lamp. I sighed peacefully and squeezed my doll tighter, snuggling into the real thing's chest.

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	48. Chapter Forty Seven

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**Chapter 47**

I swallowed, amazed when it didn't hurt at all. I was so glad I was getting over this cold.

It took me less time than it had the morning before to remember I was sharing a bed with Quil. Part of that reason might have been because one side of my body was sweating from the heat of his skin on mine.

My eyes snapped open and I looked warily upwards, to where I could hear Quil breathing peacefully. I hoped Embry wouldn't come to the door again and see us like this. It had been bad enough yesterday when only our legs and arms had been intertwined. It would be twice as bad if he saw me lying across Quil's chest, our limbs just as intertwined as yesterday.

_Okay, what the hell is this?!_ I thought, frusterated. _Why can't we just sleep in the same bed _once_ without lacing up together?!_

I took my hands from his chest -- _yum! _--and put them safetly on the matress, pulling myself off him. He made a small groaning sound and his hands around my waist pulled me back down softly. Well, softly for him. It was still a struggle for me to stay upright.

After about three minutes of very slow, cautious movement, I finally got myself out of his bed and began walking toward the door. I stopped when I got there and turned around, watching him for a few more seconds before leaving the room completely.

I couldn't hear the television or stereo, so that told me straight away that Embry was still asleep. I stopped as I passed my old room and opened it as quietly as I could, just to be positive.

Yep, sure enough, Embry was sprawled out across the bed, his legs and head hanging off the side. The position he was in did look really uncomfortable, but he seemed alright with it. Even his pillow had fallen off the matress and onto the floor...

I sighed and walked slowly into Quil's living room. I really didn't mind being alone, but Quil and Embry were a couple of the few people I was able to hang out with under almost any circumstance. Actually, I couldn't think of a circumstance where I wouldn't want Quil next to me through.

I decided to make the three of us breakfast. It was a high probability that they would both wake up from the smell of it and join me in less than an hour, anyway.

I'd just put the eggs in the pan when Embry made his way into the living room, closely followed by Quil, who still wasn't wearing a shirt. I smiled quickly and looked toward the food in front of me in case he'd noticed my gawking. Why weren't all guys as good-loking as him?!

"What's cooking, Claire?" Embry asked, leaning over me and grabbing bacon from the pan. He put it in his mouth straight away. It still amazed me, after all these years, that the heat from some of the food they ate didn't burn their throats.

"Bacon and eggs." I said softly as Embry left for the living room again. "Did you two want toast?"

"I'll get it." Quil murmured, moving behind me. It was such a tiny kitchen that I could feel his body heat behind me. I closed my eyes softly to hide the picture of Embry with his eyebrows raised at me. The idiot. If he kept acting like this, Quil'd know I liked him in less than a week.

"Still feeling up to going home today?" Quil asked softly.

"Yeah..." I sighed. I didn't want to stay here any longer. What if Quil woke up before me and found us like we'd been sleeping the last few days?

"We'll leave straight after breakfast. Jake said Nessie wants to meet Trinity, too."

"'Kay." I murmured, slipping past Quil and to the fridge.

After the three of us eating breakfast, having showers, and calling Jacob, I packed up my things and we got into Quil's old truck. "Okay, I am officially squashed." I muttered, half sitting on Embry as Quil rolled down his window. "And boiling."

"Aw, am I too hot for you, Claire?" Embry joked, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into him.

"Oh, yeah, you're smokin', Em."

When we finally reached my house I jumped out of the car and went to grab my bags, but Quil was there before me. "You should know by now that this is my job." he said, smirking as I pouted.

"Your job?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Jeeze, Quil, it's not like we're marriedor anything..." _If only..._

He just laughed and turned away from me, starting the short walk into my house.

"Marylyn?" Embry called, running in front of Quil into the hall.

My mom was asleep on the couch with the television blaring in front of her. I sighed and turned it off, walking to where she was resting. "Mom?"

She jumped awake, sitting up really quickly. "Oh, Claire. Why're you here? Are you still sick?"

"No, I'm all better." I said happily, trying to hold back a harmless cough that was threatening to escape from my mouth.

"Oh." she sighed for a second and looked toward the hall. "Just stay away from Trinity for a while. Just in case."

"Sure, Mom." I assured her, walking into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Quil decided to follow me in and leaned against the counter as I stood at the tap. "So what do you have planned if you're not allowed to leave your room until the next Ice Age?"

"I'll just need some company."

"Good. Nessie's just about to show up." he laughed. I rolled my eyes and pushed him, using almost all the strength I could. He hardly even swayed. See? Who said I couldn't take on a monster...

As soon as Jacob and Nessie had arrived we went back into the living room. Mom was holding Trinity on the couch, but she was asleep, so she wasn't much of an excitement to any of us.

"She's so beautiful, Marylyn." Nessie complimented, touching Trinity's black hair softly. "She looks heaps like you. What color are her eyes?"

"The same as mine." Mom said, smiling down at her daughter.

"Were you hoping for her to have Troy's eyes...after...you know..." Embry trailed off. I gave Quil a quick glance, then looked down at the floor. No one except Quil, my mother and me knew that it wasn't my father's baby. I had asked if we should tell Emily, but Mom said that probably wasn't the best idea. Not even Bobby knew that my knew baby sister was his, too.

"Claire looks a lot like her father." Mom said, putting her hand on my knee. "It's my turn to have someone that looks like me." she laughed uncomfortably.

I gave her a small smile, then turned my attention on the television.

Trinity was asleep the whole time they were there. Quil stayed while Embry took his truck after lunch, and Nessie and Jake left a couple of hours after that. Trinity finally woke up, and I began wishing I'd stayed a little longer at Quil's.

"Doesn't that thing ever shup up?!" I groaned in frustration, almost dropping the dinner I'd made on the floor. Mom had told me to make a massive dessert, as well as a dinner for sixteen people, so the fridge was stuffed, and I was having trouble getting everything to the table.

"You come and take care of her if you think I'm doing such a crappy job!" my mother yelled back.

I rolled my eyes and stopped myself from throwing something in her direction. "I'm not allowed near her, remember?!"

Quil pretended to cover his ears until I'd stopped yelling at my mother. He took the plate off me and set it on the table. "Who's coming for dinner?"

"Sam, Emily, Hannah and Toby, but Mom wanted me to make twelve times what they'd eat, so it's not going to fit on the table.

"I don't know what I'll want to eat yet. I just wanted to make sure that there'd be something good on the table." Mom said, walking into the kitchen and opening the door of the refridgerator. She stuck her finger in the cake I'd just made and nodded as she put it in her mouth. "I'll never know how you make such brilliant icing, Honey."

"I sneezed in it." I said through my teeth.

She laughed breezily and looked back to the living room as Trinity started crying again. She shuddered and started walking back out, muttering to herself something like; "If the thing doesn't shut the fuck up soon, I'm going to have to go to prison for murder..."

Quil laughed loudly and caught the knife I threw at his head. I honestly wasn't trying to hurt him. There was no way he'd be able to miss it, so therefore, I'm not the bitch I sounded like.

***

A week. A whole effing week. That was how long I was in my room, not allowed to come out and take care of Trinity, even though I was well over my cold.

And the stupid thing cried almost all night every night. My mother was thinking about hanging herself off the lights in the kitchen, I could tell. She even had Emily come over some times in the middle of the night to help take care of our new bundle of joy. I felt really sorry for my aunt, but so relieved when the two of them got the little monster quiet and back to sleep.

The funny thing about Trinity, though, was that she always chose night time to wake up and give me hell. Through the day she was sound asleep, so she was a disappointment to anyone who came to visit her. Yeah, they actually wanted to spend some time with her.

Quil took me out most days, when he wasn't working his new job at Jacob's brand new store, and he usually stayed with me until I fell asleep. Thankfully, he never stayed himself, so we had no more 'incidents'.

A warm hand tracing patterns under my left eye woke me up on the first day of August. I smiled, but kept my eyes closed. My first thoughts was that it was Embry, as he had been spending a bit of time with me here, and I could remember Quil telling me he had to work the next day the evening before. It wasn't Embry who spoke, though.

"Morning, Sunshine."

I opened my eyes and gave him a sleepy, confused look. "I thought you were working today?"

"I still have half an hour until I have to be there." he sighed, climbing into my hammock with me and letting me rest in his lap. Oh, yeah. This was the way to wake up. "And I was curious to see if you wanted to come to work with me."

"You're a mechanic..." I mumbled.

"It won't be boring." he promised me. "Besides, Nessie's there usually, so you two can hang out if she shows up today."

"Mmm...okay. It's better than hanging out here and taking care of Trinity while Mom's asleep, anyway."

"Good. I'll get your outfit ready. You have a shower." he said as I struggled to sit up.

"Are you saying I smell?" I asked in a playful whisper.

He chuckled and helped me up, leaning over me protectively as I slid out of my hammock. "I'll be twenty minutes."

"I'll be here."

After having a shower, making sure my hair smelled really good, blowdrying it, straightening my fringe, applying mascara and dressing in the clothes Quil passed around the half-closed door, I walked out, laced up my shoes, and looked at him expectantly.

"You were twenty-_five_ minutes."

"A girl has to look her best." I shrugged, throwing my wet towel in the corner of my room.

"Nice outfit." he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and turned toward the door. Actually, he hadn't done bad at all picking out what I'd be wearing for the day. I was dressed in a black skirt that finished above my knees, light pink, knit stockings, and a light brown shirt with a grey cardigan. I loved being able to dress in skirts instead of jeans and sweat pants in this weather.

Mom was asleep on the couch with Trinity's crib next to her. I turned the TV off as I passed her and tip-toed to the door with Quil following closely behind me. I'd send her a text to tell her where I was around lunch time. She'd probably wake up when it was getting dark, anyway.

"Let's roll!" I said happily, slamming the door of Quil's truck behind me.

He laughed and pulled out of my driveway. The truck stalled twice just getting out of La Push, and by the time we were in Port Angeles, it sounded just about ready to fall to pieces. Then again, it had sounded that lovely ever since I could remember.

"Jeeze, Quil! Shouldn't you be thinking about doing some maintenance on this old thing before you fix up someone else's shit box?" I complained, kicking my feet frustratedly as my window wouldn't wind up.

He helped me with it, sighing heavily. "Not enough money. But I'm saving. I'll get a good car soon enough."

"How long've you been saving for?" I questioned.

"Six years." he smirked.

"And how close are you to getting your new car?"

He frowned and looked out the window. "No where near it..."

I didn't say anything else, but jumped out the truck and threw the door closed hard behind me. Quil locked it from the inside, then hopped out, too.

"Where're we headed?" I asked him, looking around the street.

He laughed and pointed almost straight in front of me, where there was a small garage with a huge yard. It was painted orange and black, and had big words on the front of the garage, saying _Black's Mecahnics._ So you could see why I had trouble finding it...

"Nice." I approved, nodding as we crossed the road to get to it.

"Hey, Quil." a couple of guys said from the yard, working on a few parked cars. I recognised one as Payton and smiled warmly as I followed Quil inside.

"Jake's doing pretty well, seeing as he's just opened this place."

"Yeah, well, the closest mechanic other than this one is Dowling's, and they're a rip off, so people've been choosing to come here." Quil sighed, walking behind the counter of the store. He waved me in after him, so I followed.

"I've seen other mechanics, and not just in Forks." I said, remembering a couple I'd seen in Port Angeles before.

He laughed quietly. "None that people think it's worth going to. Jake definitely knows what he's doing compared to some of the others."

I looked toward the wall as Quil took off his shirt to put on his work one. There were hundreds of pictures of cars, just like Jake's room at home. I shook my head as I noticed the calendar I had bought him a couple of years back. Apparently he'd liked the cars in it so much he'd fixed it up by pasting in the dates from this year so he could keep them.

"Quil?" Nessie's voice called as her head peeped around the corner from the back room. "Oh, hey, Claire!"

"Hey, Nessie." I said, holding back a laugh as I heard Jake groan. "What're you two up to?"

"Just going over some things..." Nessie murmured as a shirt was thrown at her head from Jacob, who was still in hiding. She pulled it over her singlet and walked out to greet us. Apparently she was unaware that her pants were undone and she wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Do up your pants." I whispered in her ear as she hugged me tightly.

"Oh." she said, blushing a bright red as she turned away from us and did them up. She turned back to Quil in less than two seconds and hugged him, too.

"What kind of things were you going over, guys?" I asked them, doing my best to sound interested. I loved making them uneasy.

"I'm gonna say they were going over things for their married life." Quil said thoughtfully. I laughed and stood on my toes to give Jake a quick hug.

"Shut up." Nessie hissed.

Quil and Jacob started working after only five minutes of the four of us chatting. Nessie led me to the back room and we stayed in there for most of the day, gossiping and laughing loudly at what the other had to say. Nessie was who I was most comfortable with speaking to out of all the girls I knew. Actually, now that I had this huge thing for Quil, I was going to say she was the _person _I was most comfortable talking to.

"Aw, see? You're meant to be together!" she said excitedly, but quietly, after I had explained to her about waking up with Quil while I was staying at his apartment last month. Since the sleepover, I hadn't really had any time just with Nessie to talk to her.

"Maybe it was just a whole lot of teenage hormones pushing me toward him." I contradicted, even though I did like where she was going with all of this.

"Maybe." she agreed.

I groaned. "But Nessie, I've been trying to get over him, but it just won't work! And I know people say it's hard getting over crushes, but I didn't think it'd be anything like this! This is impossible!"

"Hmm..." she said thoughtfully, putting her fingers on the pulse point in my wrist. I didn't know why she bothered. She'd be able to hear it well enough without feeling for it. She must have just been letting me know she was doing it. She nodded to herself while counting the beats of my heart then frowned as footsteps came toward the door.

"Lunch break." Quil explained as he, Jacob, Payton and the other guy from outside took seats in the room behind the counter. We could see them all from where we were sitting, but Quil was right at the door. He frowned as he took in the sight of the two of us. "What're you doing?"

"Just having a look at Claire's pulse." Nessie murmured, taking her warm fingers away from my skin. "She has that thing, where it slows down when she breathes out."

"Yeah, I've noticed while I'm listening to it." Quil said, his eyes still narrowed at the two of us. "You hungry, Claire? I brought you some food."

"Thanks." I said, walking to the door with Nessie skipping along behind me.


	49. Chapter Forty Eight

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**Chapter 48**

The guy other than the three I already knew working at Jake's store was a local to Port Angeles, and his name was Dan. He had light red hair and freckly skin, so he was looking like the only person who worked here without Native American blood.

"So _you're_ the famous Claire." he said, shaking my hand as I sat at the tiny table next to Quil. "Quil never shuts up about you."

"Dan," Quil sighed.

"Well, you don't!" he laughed as I blushed and put my hand under the table. I thought I only talked about Quil twenty-four/seven. It was odd to think that it happened the other way, too.

"I'd say the same thing to you, but this is the first time I've ever heard about you, so..." I trailed off, smiling happily to the boy across the table from me.

He laughed with Payton as Jacob rolled his eyes and Nessie and Quil shook their heads. There was a bell sound from the room in front of us and Nessie jumped up to answer it.

"Aw, Jake, making your fiancé attend to the customers at your own business." I said, shaking my head in false disapproval.

He laughed. "We've realized they seem a lot more keen to leave their cars here when she serves them. Well, mostly the guys. Women don't mind Payton here helping them out."

Payton ducked as Jake swiped for his head, and I smiled and looked down at my sandwich. I had a feeling Payton wasn't the only one the women liked serving them...

After lunch, Nessie and I went back into our little session in the back room.

"Oh my gosh, could you feel how much your heart beat increased in speed when Quil entered the room?!" she said in a quiet whisper.

I frowned. "You don't think he's noticed, do you?" I asked worriedly.

She snorted. "I have no doubt he's noticed. Perhaps he just hasn't paid as much attention as he could have?"

"I hope so..." I moaned, putting my face in my hands. "Oh, there was something I wanted to plan with you."

"What is it?" Nessie asked, leaning forward.

"It's about Quil's Christmas present. Can he hear us?" I asked her, looking toward the door.

She fell quiet for a second, then shook her head. "No, he's out the front, under a car, with his iPod in his ear."

I laughed. "What song's he listening to?" I joked. She opened her mouth to tell me, but I held up my hands. "No, I was being sarcastic. Okay, I need your help..."

***

**QPOV**

I'd been so happy when Claire had agreed to come to work with me. I'd finally be able to show her off to Dan. He was always asking me why I kept blabbing on and on about her, and, as he had no idea whatsoever about the whole wolf thing, I'd had to rely on Claire's beauty and gorgeous personality to show him why I just couldn't stop talking about her. He seemed pretty impressed by the end of his shift, too. Which I was not surprised about at all.

"Did you like the store?" I asked her just after we'd gotten back into my truck and out of the rain that had just started, after almost a week of dry weather.

"Yeah, it's great." she said crossing her arms in front of her to keep from freezing. I grabbed an old jumper I had stuffed behind the seat and handed it to her. "They haven't been worn since I phased, so sorry if they fall apart from old age."

She laughed and pulled her arms through it, leaning back in the seat.

By the time we got back to her house, it was almost dark. She ran in as quickly as she could from the rain and I followed right behind her.

Marylyn was asleep on the couch again, but sitting in stead of lying when we got inside, so it was obvious she'd been awake earlier. Trinity had her big eyes closed right next to her mother, and didn't look like she'd be ready to wake up for a couple more hours.

Embry showed up after Claire had invited him for dinner and was sitting at the table when Marylyn woke up, most likely from the delicious smell wafting from the pan of chicken Claire was busy over.

"Hey, Mom." she said, kissing her cheek as her mother crossed the kitchen to get a glass of water. "Caught up on all your sleep yet?"

"Almost, I think." Marylyn said glumly, taking a big drink of water and refilling her glass. She took a seat on the other side of Embry and rested her head again the table. "I wish, for one night, I could just get away and have someone else take care of her."

"She'll be a toddler before you know it." Claire said in one of those voices the older women said when talking about their own daughters. I laughed, thinking how true it was. I could remember every little detail of my time with Claire since she was two, and it seemed like it had been a lot less than thirteen years ago. Well, almost fourteen now.

When dinner was over, Marylyn fell back to sleep on the couch. She said she wanted to rest as long as she could before Trinity woke her again through the night. Embry left before the baby woke up, leaving me to talk to Claire until she was ready for bed.

"Thanks for hanging with me for so long lately, Quil." she said as she brushed her teeth.

I shook my head. "I want to. I have nothing better to do, anyway. Jake's always either working or sitting through the plans Alice's had for the wedding and Embry's just...well, I'm always with him."

"You're always with me." she said softly. I wondered if she was sick of me being around, but didn't want to ask. I don't know what I'd do if she said yes.

When she was in her pajamas we sat on the matress under her hammock, talking about nothing too fascinating. Just whatever was on our minds.

"Hmm..." she said after a few minutes of silence, leaning against her pink wall. She stared at her socks, thoughtful for a moment, before getting up from the matress and walking to her closet. She opened the door and stood on her toes, fishing out a painted golden box with patterns around the sides and on the top. "I want to show you something." she told me, sitting back down across from me and putting the box on the matress between us.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"A box that my father gave me for my birthday." she said, unclipping the lid and lifting it to reveal a heap of different things nestled in the blue velvet inside. She smiled and pulled out a string of beads and held them up. A rush of memories of sitting at the tiny table in this very room came back to me, and I held back a laugh as I thought of her arguing with me that her beading was always better than mine.

"I'm guessing we did these while I was little...?"

"Yeah, I remember." I said, taking it from her outsrtretched hand. Under closer inspection, I saw that there were two of them, exactly the same, tied together. "Haha, I always used to copy the exact design you were doing, but your's were always better."

"I sound like I was an annoying little kid." she murmured.

"You were adorable." I told her, setting the beads down on the matress beside her box.

She smiled and pulled out a couple of folded pieces of paper. "I don't remember these, but I think I can guess that we did them together." She unfolded the papers and lay them out on the matress, turning them so they were facing me. The first was a messy fingerpainting I could remember her doing at that same tiny table when she was three, and the second was one of both of us, and we had both worked on it. She had drawn the people while I had put the sun in the top corner and the birds in the sky.

"See? I always should've been an artist." she said sarcastically, putting them over with the beads.

There was the note I had given her when she had been learning to read, that told her how much I loved her and how lucky I thought myself to have a friend like her. She read it to herself, smiling at the words on the paper, then kept her head down as she reached for the next thing.

She groaned when she found a small piece of paper with Quileute words written on it from her primary years at school.

"Count for me, Claire-bear." I said, trying not to laugh at the disgusted look on her face as she scrunched up the paper and threw it on top of the pile of things that were still coming out of the box.

"One, two, three, four, five." she said tonelessly, staring at me with a blank face.

"In Quileute." I specified.

She gave me a small pout before opening her mouth again. "Wihl, Hla'o, Qa'al, Ba'iyas, Tasi. Now what the hell does that have to do with this box?! This is only things that involved the two of us, not our ancestors."

"That was the piece of paper that you asked me to help you with. You just couldn't get wren."

"Cho-cho." she said simply. Obviously she'd practised it hundreds of times. I still had had trouble with it before I'd phased. _"With_ emphasis on the Ch's."

"You're such a talent." I murmured, waiting for her to get the next thing from her box.

"Okay, I don't even know why I have these." she said, grabbing four little green pebbles from the corner of the box. She held them out and dropped them into my open hand.

I pulled them back and studied them, amazed that she had kept them. I remembered the day she'd told me to get them for her so clearly, and it upset me that _that_ Claire was gone...

_"Quil, I know I said I'd be having the day off and everything, but Troy just called me and he wants me to get some things for the bonfire party next month. Would you mind if I stepped out for a bit?"_

_"I'll take care of her, Marylyn." I said, secretly pleased that I'd be able to spend the whole day with Claire and without her mother. I had the most fun when it was just the two of us anyway._

_"Okay, thanks so much. Just let her sleep until she gets up herself, get her Cheerios, you can take her out --"_

_"Marylyn, I'm, like, permanent baby sitter now, remember?" I asked her, smiling widely. She and her husband had been a little confused when I first started hanging around their daughter so much, but they were slowly starting to accept me as a member of their small family. Or rather, Marylyn was. I didn't really get along with Troy that much..._

_"Yeah...okay. I'll see you both when I get home." With that, she had left, and I'd sat in Claire's room, watching her until she woke up._

_When she'd finally gotten out of bed and let me help dress her in a pair of jeans and a nice shirt she'd gotten for her third birthday, she'd insisted we go to pay Emily and Sam a visit. They didn't have any kids, so she got spoiled everytime she was there, and we both ate more than we were supposed to hold of Emily's cooking._

_"What've you two got planned for the day?" Emily asked us as she set her lemon cheesecake on the little table infront of me. She handed me a knife and put four plates on the table._

_"I wan' dat bit." Claire said, pointing to the complete opposite side of the cake to where I was cutting._

_"We don't know yet." I told her after a few minutes. Ever since I'd Imprinted on Claire, I'd had trouble saying the word 'I'. I was always with Claire, so I mostly said we._

_"Da beach!" Claire said excitedly, cheesecake all over her fingers._

_I laughed. "Okay, we'll go to the beach." I promised her, wiping a bit of lemon icing from her eyebrow._

_"Don't you dare let her in the water, Quil." Emily warned me. "Troy'll kill you if she gets a cold."_

_"Relax, Em!" I said, finishing off my cake and turning to watch Claire do the same, even though she had only just started. "I'm not completely irresponsible." Sam snorted at this, but didn't say anything. He'd had his slip-ups when it came to Imprints, too._

_So I'd taken Claire to the beach, but we'd had to stop at her house again so she could get her new beach toys to take. She made me carry them down the beach until she found a place she liked, then danced around the edge of the water, looking at me slyly to see how I'd react to her being so close to the water._

_I put her bucket, full of spades and sand rakes and containers to shape the wet stuff out of, down on the sand and she ran straight to it, tipping all the things out onto the beach with a "Weeee!!!"_

_"Are you going to pick those up?" I asked her, knowing I'd give in and decide to do it before she understood my question._

_She just giggled and went back to the water, bending down and pretenting to scoop it up with the bucket, while watching me over her shoulder. She was too close now, and I knew that if I went to pick her up she'd go an inch closer, straight into the water._

_"Keep out of the water, Claire." I told her. "C'mon. No, don't." I said, bending down, as if that would make her come to me quicker. She went the extra step, just as a wave came in, and her jeans, up to her knees, got drenched in the salty water. "Oh! _Nice_, kid. Seriously, do you want Emily to yell at me?" I said, remembering her aunt's words from less than an hour ago. I hoped more than anything else she wouldn't get sick._

_"I'm not bringing you back to the beach again if you don't --" she cut me off, saying softly I'd bring her back when she told me to. "Oh yeah? Don't -- ugh." I looked down at myself as she laughed, having filled up her bucket with water and thrown it at me. "You think that's funny, do you?" I picked her up quickly and carefully, but she hung limp, so I took her ankle and held her up, hanging upside down. "Hah! Who's laughing now, huh?"_

_She still was, actually. She liked me spinning her around in circles and holding her upside-down, but she also liked me acting with her this way. She was so beautiful._

_She hit the front of my wet shirt with her bucket as I heard soft footsteps crunch into the pebbles n the ground behind me. "Fice bucks on the baby girl." a deep voice said._

_"Hey, Jake." I muttered, not needing to turn around to recognise my best friend as the owner of the voice._

_Claire gave us her high-pitched squeal and aimed at my knees with her bucket. "Down, down!" she damanded adorably._

_I smiled, putting her back on her feet as carefully as I could. She ran to Jake and wrapped her arms around his leg. "Unca Jay!" she yelled happily._

_"How's it going, Claire?" he asked her. I was glad she remembered him. She hadn't seen him before he had his tantrum and left La Push._

_Claire giggled mischeviously. "Qwil _aaaaawl _wet now."_

_"I can see that." Jake chuckled. "Where's your mama?" I remembered telling him that I couldn't spend the day with just her because 'Stupid Marylyn just _had _to have the day off on one of the only days I wasn't working, the bitch...'_

_"Gone, gone, gone," Claire said in her sing-song voice. "Cwaire pway wid Qwil _aaaawl _day. Cwaire nebber gowin home." she ran back to me, and I felt so impossibly happy when I saw the smile on her face. Especially after I'd heard her talk about spending the day with me and being so excited about it._

_"Sounds like somebody's hit the terrible twos." Jacob said._

_"Threes, actually." I told him. "You missed the party. Princess theme. She made me wear a crown, and then Emily suggested they all try out her new play makeup on me." Even though I didn't usually like getting my face made up, it had been worth it, seeing the fun Claire had gotten out of it._

_Jacob laughed. "Wow, I'm _really _sorry I wasn't around to see that."_

_"Don't worry, Emily has pictures." I assured him. "Actually, I look pretty hot."_

_"You're such a patsy." he accused._

_"Claire had a great time." I shrugged. "That was the point."_

_Jacob rolled his eyes, but I ignored him and went back to concentrating on Claire, who was singing and tugging gently at my hair as she steadied herself on my shoulders. I couldn't be annoyed at Jake when he rolled his eyes like he just had. He didn't have an Imprint, so he didn't really understand. Not to mention the love of his life had just gotten married to one of the species our own was destined to hate._

_Claire suddenly squealed, and I looked down, to where she was pointing at the ground. "Pity wock, Qwil! For me, for me!"_

_I frowned at the ground, where there was about a gazillion different pebbles, and decided to specify my options. "Which one, kiddo? The red one?"_

_"No wed!"_

_I was very careful while going to my knees that I didn't give her the chance to fall off my shoulders, but she still screamed and grabbed my hair tightly, pulling it back toward her._

_"The blue one?" I asked her, ignoring the minor pain on my scalp._

_"No, no, no...," she sung, kicking her legs around my neck. I had a feeling she hadn't really seen a rock she desperately wanted, but I didn't let that stop me. I was enjoying this, too. Just hearing her so happy gave _me_ so much happiness that I thought I might explode. I loved her so much._

_I started picking up different rocks for her to see, but each time I felt her shake her head, and say; "Nope."_

_Jacob suddenly broke through our game to talk to me. "Quil, you ever think about dating?"_

_"Huh?" I asked him, wondering if I had heard him wrong. Was it not obvious that I'd Imprinted on Claire?!_

_"No, no yewwo!" Claire knocked the yellow pebble I was holding up to her out of my hand as I held it up for her to see._

_"You know." Jake continued. "A real girl. I mean, just for now, right? On your nights off babysitting duty."_

_I gave him a look, probably looking something like a dead blowfish as I tried to comprehend his words. Claire snapped my back to her, by screaming out again. "Pity wock! Pity wock!" She hit me as hard as she could with her hand balled up. I hope she didn't hurt it against my skull..._

_"Sorry, Claire-bear." I said, grabbing a new rock and holding it up for her to see better. "How about this pretty purple one?"_

_She giggled so adorably it made me smile so my cheeks started hurting. "No, no poopoh."_

_"Give me a clue." I asked her desperately. "I'm begging, kid."_

_She was silent for a few seconds, thinking about what she wanted. "Gween." she said, breaking the silence._

_I looked back at the rocks, picking out the four prettiest ones I could find for her, and opening my palm for her to see them. "Did I get it?" I asked her, hoping she'd be happy with one of the rocks in my hand."_

_"Yay!" she said happily back._

_"Which one?"_

_"_Aaaaawl _ob dem!"_

_I chuckled as she put her cupped hands in front of my face, and I put the four pebbles into them, thinking about it being so amazing, how tiny they were. She laughed happily and hit my head with them. I pretended to be hurt, just for her sake, even though she probably couldn't tell, and got to my feet again. I grabbed all of her things, put them back in the bucket and started walking toward the First Beach parking lot. I didn't want her getting a cold in her wet jeans..._

I came back to the present, still staring at the four small rocks in my hand. Jake had been trying to get me to go on a date back then. I still, after almost thirteen years, hadn't. And I didn't know if I ever would again. Who knew if Claire would choose someone other than me, get married to him and have his children? I'd stand by her the whole time, offering advice and hiding my pain, happy for her even though mosy of my life had been a waste of time. Then I wouldn't be able to go on dates anyway, because the other girls wouldn't be anything how I wanted them to be. Maybe I'd just stop phasing and grow old, dying by myself.

Or maybe Claire would choose me someday...but that was her own choice. I'd already told myself I wasn't going to stand in the way of that decision of her's.

I looked up at Claire, putting the pebbles back in the box so we wouldn't lose them. The same big, brown eyes from my memories stared back at me, watching me closely. Her skin had tanned an awful lot since she was three, and her hair had darkened, but she was still the same person, and I still loved her just as much as I had when she was a toddler. But now it was in such a different way...

"There's a great story behind those pebbles." I told her, smiling widely.

She leaned back and smiled, telling me silently to get started with it and tell her. I smiled back and began my story, hoping it meant even a fraction as much to her as it did to me.

******************

**Again, I rushed through these chapters, so just ignore any mistakes.**

**So, yah-yah! I'll get the next chapter up before four days time, hopefully. Now I'm going to prepare myself for the weekend at my fathers...**

**Oh, and about the numbers...I've been on a whole heap of different websites, and most of them have something of their own to say for the numbers. The ones I used were the most common, though. And I also found classes on how to say them! :D**

**Don't forget to review! You know you want to...just for me. :)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	50. Chapter Forty Nine

**Hey, everyone. I'm going on a holiday tomorrow morning, and my father won't tell me when we're coming back, so I'm going to post two chapters up today. Don't worry, though. It won't be long. :)**

**I don't have enough time tonight to go through my reviews and reply and acknowledge everyone who took the time to do it, so thank you to all of you, just the same. I'll reply when I get home.**

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**Chapter 49**

**CPOV**

I woke up slowly the next day, so, so tired. I hadn't been able to sleep most of the night before. Trinity had decided she didn't want to shut up, so I'd had a lot of time to think.

And I'd decided; it was most likely going to be impossible for me to get over Quil until I found someone else. And that meant finding him on my own, or getting an Imprint (fingers crossed).

It was just...I felt so much for Quil. I knew him so well, and he knew almost everything about me. Even when I got myself thinking, and told myself that I _could_ get over him, no trouble at all, I quickly got rid of those thoughts. He'd come around and be a hundred times as great as I had remembered. Especially when he reminded me things that were buried deep in the back of my memory. Things that I'd never be able to remember by myself, or could only pick up fragments of it, that I wasn't sure were true memories from my subconscious mind, or just my conscious mind making them up for me.

I seriously couldn't think of anyone I'd ever want more than him. Growing up, I'd had a few crushes, but they hadn't been proper ones. I mean, I'd wanted to get married to John Smith as a child, but then I'd seen a movie with Mel Gibson while I was twelve, and his voice had clicked, and that had ruined all fantasies of my blond husband for me...

Then there'd been that guy from the movies that had all come out around the same time. I'd quickly gotten over that crush, though. Quil had seemed kinda angry when I'd said something about how good-looking the guy in the movie had been, so that had cleaned up the feelings I'd had for him. It was probably something about the way he acted for publicity, too...that would have gotten me over him, anyway.

But I'd never felt anything toward anyone the way I felt toward Quil...it reminded me heaps of things I'd read in books a million times before. The way I felt when he appeared in front of me, how my heart almost doubled in pace, how I tried to act perfect but failed miserably when he was paying attention to me. Jeesh, I sucked.

Mom was flicking through a magazine on the couch when I finally pulled myself out of bed. You know those magazines that're full of crap you can order in that get dropped off at your doorstep? Yeah, she never had trouble finding them interesting...

"Look at this, Claire." she said, pointing to a page that had a collage of God-knows-what on it. "Think we should get one of those?"

"That depends on how much it is, Mom." we'd had money problems before Trinity came along, but now it was just getting ridiculous. I'd been on the lookout for a job that'd help us, but nothing was suitable for a teenage girl with no transportation in a town this small.

"It's only $10.99. And wouldn't it look nice in the garden?"

"Of course it would." I said. I bent down to Trinity's crib, which had been dragged into the living room and brushed her tiny nose as gently as I could. Her eyes squeezed shut tighter, then she relaxed, staying in her dreams. I tilted my head to the side for a second before turning back to my mother. "How come she's never awake through the day?"

"She's a vampire." Mom joked, not taking her eyes out of her magazine.

I laughed, thinking of Nessie's family. They definitely didn't sleep through the day, but Mom didn't need to hear what I believed in for 'mythical' creatures. I picked up Trinity as carefully as I could, making sure she was still asleep before holding her close to me and taking a seat next to Mom on the couch.

"Do you think Bobby's every going to find out she's related to him?" I asked her, playing with Trinity's short, black hair.

Mom sighed, closed the magazine, and threw it on the floor. "Don't you dare tell him, Claire. Not even his father knows Trinity's his."

"I wasn't going to tell him, Mom." I told her, jumping slightly as my phone started ringing. I tried to get it out of my pocket without moving Trinity too much.

It was a message from Nessie. I flipped open my phone, curious to know what she'd be sending me.

**What are you doing this coming Saturday?**

I frowned and hit the button that would allow me to reply to her message. **Nothing, that I know of. What's going on?**

**My mother invited Renée over. Would you mind being here for a while? I kind of have a plan. Everyone but my parents are leaving, just to give her more space, but I want someone around, too. Jacob's already said he'd have the day off work for me.**

**Of course I'll come, Nessie. **I wrote back to her. She was my best friend, and I wanted to help her however she needed it.** Are Quil and Embry going to be there, too?**

**I think so. I mean, I'm inviting them. I just want as many people who aren't...our type...here as possible so Renée knows we're not as dangerous as she'll think. Thanks for this, Claire.**

**That's okay, Nessie. Love **

**Love you, too. xx**

***

"What's for lunch?" Embry asked as he and Quil walked through my front door.

I whacked him on the head with the plate I'd just finished eating off and went to the kitchen to put it in the sink. "I just had lunch. Get Edward to make you something while we're at their house."

"Aww, but then the food smells like shit!" Embry whined.

"Don't you swear around my baby, Embry Call." my mother threatened playfully as she left the kitchen with the ever-sleeping Trinity in her arms.

Embry sighed at sat at the table, giving me puppy-dog eyes. I thought _he'd_ be better at it than that.

"I think they smell great." I muttered, giving in and using the cheese I had on the bench to make him a sandwich.

"Well, son." he said in the best voice he could manage of an old person. "When you get to be big and strong boy who can turn into a poodle like Quilly here, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about."

I rolled my eyes and turned to Quil, who was shaking his head at his best friend. "Want a sandwich, Quil?"

"Naw, that's okay, Claire. I know by now that Jacob would've had Edward make a thousand things to eat there, so I'll just help him with that."

"Okay..." I sighed as I pushed Embry's plate toward him from across the table.

When Embry had finished his sandwich and I'd cleaned the kitchen up, I said a quick goodbye to Mom and my sister, then left with the guys. It was a long drive in Quil's old truck, especially when I was wedged in between the two of them and trying not to die of heat stroke, but we made it. I jumped out, into the light rain gratefully.

"We're late..." Quil mumured as he fell into step beside me.

The big white doors were open, so we just walked in. The Cullens had had some problems with the guys being here when I was younger, but they were almost perfectly fine with it now.

"Hey, Claire! Quil, and Embry." Nessie said, waving one arm as she sat across from a woman on the couch.

Oops. We were really late.

Renée was kind of skinny, with pale skin and freckles. Her short brown hair was down, and messy around her neck, and she was rugged up more than even I was in this weather. She was sitting uneasily on one of the Cullen's couches, looking warily at Nessie. Every now and then she'd look over her shoulder at Bella, who looked as if she were trying to explain something.

I went to the dining room table, where I would still be able to see and hear the discussion, and sat down next to Jacob, who was watching from his seat. It was amazing. There were a whole three plates of food in front of him, but he wasn't touching anything. There's a first time for everything, I guess...

"Mom, you don't need to know _everything_." Bella said, walking a few steps toward her mother, who didn't move at all.

"Well, Bella, I've noticed there's something going on, and I want in on it. Just tell me!" Renee said back helplessly.

Bella sighed and sat on the back of the couch she was sitting on. "Just...wait. Guys, come here." she said, waving for us to join them. I got up from the table and walked with Jacob, Quil and Embry to the living room, stopping just behind Bella. "This is Embry, Claire and Quil. And you know Jacob." she said, pointing to each of us in turn, then looking back to her mother.

"Yes...hello again, Jacob." Renée said. I could tell she was trying her best to act pleasant, but she looked like she was about to explode at her daughter. She turned back to her. "Now tell me what's going on."

"Just make your own assumptions. That's what Charlie's been doing all of these years, and that's all you need to do yourself." Edward said calmly as he walked to his wife and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"And Charlie's okay about being kept in the dark?" Renée asked them in what was clearly disbelief. Bella shrugged and nodded. "You really don't want to tell me _anything?_"

"No, Mom." Bellla sighed. She sat in between Renée and Renesmee and stared at the blank television. "Just...trust us."

"That's hard to do when you don't know anything about what you're supposed to be trusting." she looked toward our group, then back to her daughter. "But it looks like I'll be alright without snow white skin and golden eyes. I just want to know one thing, though."

"And that is?" Edward asked hesitantly.

Renée nodded to Nessie, who was sitting on the opposite end of the couch. "Introduce us?"

Bella chewed her lip for a few seconds, then nodded. Renesmee stood up so Renée could see her better and smiled warmly, not showing her perfect, blinding white teeth properly. "Hello, Renée."

"Hello...?"

"Renesmee." Nessie said easily. "But everyone just calls me Nessie."

"Renesmee..." Renée repeated thoughtfully. "Now, I know something odd's going on around here, and I know you guys aren't going to let anything, go, but I would like to know about this one little thing." she said, glancing at Edward and Bella before turning back to Renesmee. "Who _are_ you?"

Nessie frowned at her mother, then sat down on the arm chair, right next to Renée. "Okay, I'm going to tell the honest truth, but I don't want you to judge, you can't walk away, and you can't call us freaks, alright?"

Renée tried to smile, and nodded.

"My name's Renesmee Carlie Cullen. Renesmee as in Renée and Esme, Carlie as in Carlisle and Charlie. I was named after my four grandparents." she stopped to check Renée's expression, then continued, a little slower. "I was born on the eleventh of September...fourteen years ago."

Renée sat up straighter, opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, nodding for Nessie to continue. "I grew up a little faster than regular children, and I have a much higher IQ. I've been home-schooled all my life. I'm in love with Jacob Black, and you were asked to come up here to meet me because my mother thought it would be wrong if you weren't invited to our wedding."

Renée swallowed, her eyes glazed over. After about two minutes of the room being in an uncomfortable silence, she looked over toward Bella. "How the hell could you not tell me you were having a baby?!"

"It...just happened so fast, Mom." Bella said, looking a little scared, even though her mother wouldn't be able to do any physical damage to her if she tried. "I didn't want you to come down. Things just kept happening, and they never slowed down, and you would've been in danger."

"From what?!" Renée almost shrieked, standing from the couch. "I can't understand what you're saying if you don't explain everything to me!"

"Okay!" Bella said, grabbing her mother's arm and pulled her back down onto the cushions. "But we can't tell you _everything._ It's not safe. If you find out on your own, that's that. We won't be able to do anything about it."

"Is it possible for me to find out on my own...?" Renée asked slowly.

Edward shrugged and nodded. "You've got a very quick mind. You don't pass over anything. You'll go through every possibility you can think of without writing them off because they're 'impossible'."

"Okay, now I'm a little concerned." she said, narrowing her eyes at Edward.

Edward grinned for a second, then said; "Two. Nineteen. Four thousand, six hundred, and seventy-two."

"What's going on?" I asked Quil in a whisper.

He bent down to my level and put his mouth to my ear. "I think she's asking him questions using telepathy. She must've worked it out from Edward's little speech a second ago."

"Okay," Renée sighed. "I'm convinced."

"I know." Edward smirked. "And you don't seem all that worried."

"I'm sure there's worse to come. And I've always been worried about people reading my mind when something...inappropriate pops into it...just shows that I believe it." Renée said uneasily, giving him a small smile that didn't really work. She looked like she was in pain. "Now tell me what I need to know." she sighed, leaning back into the couch.

***

We stayed at the Cullen's for dinner that night. Renée kept a close eye on Bella, Edward and Renesmee, and I could almost hear the thoughts running through her head. I knew Edward was concentrating on them, because from time to time, he'd shake his head or snort at something she came up with. I didn't expect him to give her a straight answer like 'vampires!', but he was chasing away some of her more ridulous thoughts.

We were all sitting at the dinner table when she started testing them outloud. She held up her plate toward Bella and Edward and raised an eyebrow. "You guys haven't eaten all afternoon. Would you like some of mine?"

"No, thanks, Mom." Bella said, scrunching her nose up. "You have it."

"Edward?"

"No, I'm alright, thank you, Renée." he said, no acting as inhumane as his wife, but giving it up all the same.

She turned around and offered some to Renesmee, who was sitting next to Jacob. "Nessie?"

Nessie swallowed bravely, reached across the table, grabbed a piece of chicken and put it in her mouth. She chewed it up quickly, then swallowed it, rinsing her mouth with Jacob's water. "Thanks, Renée." she said, waiting until her grandmother's face was turned away in disappointment to gag and stick her tongue out of her mouth.

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	51. Chapter Fifty

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**Chapter 50**

Two days later, as soon as Renée had left, Alice had had the brillliant idea of going shopping for the Bride's Maid's dresses. Nessie had asked me if I wanted to ne one of her Bride's Maids, and I'd all but fainted of happiness.

"Okay...so there's three of us..." Alice said, putting her little hand to her chin once we were in Seattle. Yeah, she'd driven us out there so we could find the perfect thing. Nessie had said she didn't want anyone to go to too much trouble with the wedding, so Alice wasn't allowed to have the dresses specially designed like her wedding dress had been. Alice had told Rosalie and me that she was going to pick one from a rack and have a few minor adjustments made to it, just so it would be unique for the special day.

"Claire, I'm sorry, but none of the colors I've had my eye on really work for your skin." she said apologetically.

I shook my head. "That's what happens when you guys're so pale and I'm..." I trailed off, eyeing my dark arm.

Alice narrowed her eyes, then blanked out for a moment. When she came back to the present, she nodded once and looked at me. "Say what you're about to!"

"Uhh..." I looked around the shop, finding nothing that caught my interest, and wondered whether or not I should just go with what I was thinking. "How about...midnight blue?"

"Perfect!" Alice sung. She stopped and turned to her niece. "That is, if Nessie doesn't mind?"

"No, I love blue." Nessie said, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall of the shop. She knew she wouldn't have any part in this with Alice around.

"Okay, so this color will go beautifully with Rose's blond hair and pale skin, okay with my hair, but I can work with it, and I've seen Claire wear it before, and she can definitely pull it off. Not to mention, Jacob's favorite color's blue, so that should be perfect anyway. Now what were you thinking about with the style, Ness?"

"I don't know, Alice. What did you see the three of you wearing?"

"So we want form-fitting dresses," she said, walking around the shop, looking at everything close to the color she wanted, but ending up with nothing. "And they should probably reach the ground, for Claire's sake. By the time we get this perfect, it should be December."

"It's okay, Alice. I can handle it." I promised. I'd wear whatever Alice told me to for Nessie and Jake's special day.

"Wait..." Alice's head tilted to the side. She was back to normal in less than five seconds. "Strapless, floor length. It won't matter about what shoes we wear, because I knew Claire's going to hate the ones that I pick out, and no one'll be able to see them, anyway."

Alice found the material she was looking for and took it to the front desk while the three of us sat on a bench at the side of the store and watched her.

"I really didn't want her to go to all this trouble..." Nessie murmured.

"Aw, it's one of the most special days of your life, Nessie." Rosalie told her quietly, grabbing her hand. "You know Alice had to make it perfect."

Alice skipped back to the three of us after her chat with the person at the front desk, looking satisfied. "It's all done. I've drawn up a sketch of what I want, given her our measurements, and shown her what material I want out of them." she narrowed her eyes when my mouth fell open as she told us how much it was going to cost. "What is it, Claire?"

"I can't afford that!" I said desperately. Great. I was going to be wearnig a dark blue summer dress while Alice and Rosalie wore gorgeous, proper dresses.

"It's your birthday in a few days." Alice said slowly.

"Yeah..."

"I'll pay for it. Birthday present." she said, smiling sweetly at me.

I shook my head. "Alice, I'm not allowing your family to spend so much money on me for my birthdays!"

"It's not my family. It's just me. And you can't get out of it, Claire. I've seen myself giving it to you, and I'm sticking to it." she nodded her head once, then paused again. "Oh, you look beautiful in it, by the way."

"Thanks, Alice." I murmured, still not happy with her decision.

***

"Are you inviting Sam up?" Nessie asked me on the way back to Forks.

"What?" I asked, my brow furrowing as I tried to work out which Sam she was talking about.

"Your cousin? She wanted to be invited up for your birthday." she reminded me.

"Oh, yeah." I suddenly remembered. I'd laughed as she made out she only wanted an invite to my party because she needed a holiday. "I don't know...I don't think I'm even having a party."

"Oh, so you haven't planned anything yet?" Alice asked. She had turned around in the driver's seat so she could see us better, and I motioned for her to face the road before answering her.

"No, I didn't really think about it. Besides, I'm going to have to save all the money I can for Quil's Christmas present." I said softly.

Nessie pushed my arm gently, but it still hurt a bit. "I _told_ you I'd help you out with that!"

"Nessie, you seem to think that 'helping out' means you'll pay most of the cost."

"I could do that if you needed me to..." she said quietly, looking away from me, watching the pouring rain on the other side of the window.

"I'm not letting you pay any more than a quarter." I knew she'd eventually talk me into paying most of it, but I wanted to make my point clear before her manipulative words got into my head.

"Then can I pay a quarter?" Alice asked me from the front seat.

"No." I told her. "I've talked to Embry, and he's putting a bit in. I think Jake'll help me out with it all to get it cheaper. And I can always ask some of the other guys from the pack."

"And you can also ask some of us good ol' Cullens." Alice said slowly, making it sound like I couldn't get what she was saying.

"Fine," I muttered, leaning back in my seat. "But no matter how much you guys put in, you're not going over half. You've payed way too much in the past for the things I've bought."

"And yet we're still so generous..." Rosalie sighed, talking for the first time since we'd started the conversation.

***

"Claire-bear, get up."

"Why...?" I drawled, wondering whether I was asleep or awake. It felt like I'd fallen asleep less than an hour ago.

"It's your birthday." Quil whispered, his warm breath blowing into my cheek. That almost sent me back to sleep.

I sighed, wondering how I was supposed to open my eyes. "Then give me the gift of sleeping in." I mumbled, reaching out and mussing his hair. I was glad he was bending over me. I never would have been able to reach him if he'd been standing up straight.

Instead of leaving me be, like I'd hoped, he chuckled. I moaned in frustration as he lifted me effortlessly from my hammock and fell back onto my matress with me. That helped me open my eyes.

"Why?" I asked him again, looking at him with my eyes half-closed.

He chuckled and kissed the corner of my eye. "It's almost eleven. I think you've slept in enough for today."

"Holy crap!" I said, sitting up straighter. He allowed for me to leave him to get changed, brush my teeth and attempt to straighten my hair. "Are we just having a quiet day here, or are we going out for lunch or something?" I asked him, silently hoping that we'd do something a little more extravagant than sit at home and watch re-runs of shows from the nineties.

"Uhh...Alice said that you could go there for lunch. Jacob's going to be there, anyway."

"Oh, okay." I mumbled, walking out of the bathroom. He folded his arm and leaned against the frame of my door --having to bend over because he was so tall -- when he saw me, shaking his head.

"What?" I asked him, glancing down at myself.

"It's your sixteenth birthday. You should wear something a little more sophisticated than an old skirt, colored stockings and a cardigan, don't you think?"

"Yeah, well, everything I own like that's been worn about fifty times. I don't have anything new." I said uncomfortably. I always tried to dress in things I thought Quil would like.

He snorted. "It's your birthday. Don't you think I'd give you something useful?" he said, turning around and grabbing a package the size of a shoe box off the foot of my matress. He handed it to me slowly, smiling down at me as I took it. I wondered if I looked as dispeased about it as I felt. I didn't like getting presents.

"Where's Mom?" I asked him, stalling just a little, though I was interested.

"I think she went to Emily's." he said after a second. He motioned for me to start opening my present. "Open it!"

I sighed and tore off the light pink ribbon, wrapping it around my hand, then gently lifted the tape from one side of the box.

"Give it to me." he sighted, grabbing the box off me and tearing the bright pink paper off the box so fast I couldn't see it. He handed the box back to me, and I looked down at it, confused.

It _was_ a shoebox. That still didn't help me with what I was wearing to lunch. I narrowed my eyes at it, then lifted the lid.

And froze.

"Happy birthday." he said quietly. I looked up at him in shock, wondering how he could have managed to get it.

"How...did you...?"

"I texted Sam and asked if she could send it down to me. I saved up for it and stuff, so she didn't have to pay for it." he murmured, taking the dress I'd been looking at in the mall in California out of the box and holding it up to me. "I got a medium, just in case, because the girl there said it was a small size. I can get you a small if it doesn't fit, though."

I dropped the box on the floor and grabbed the dress off him, walking forward a step and standing on my toes to wrap my arms around his neck. "Thank you." I mumbled into his shoulder. He chuckled and squeezed me tight for a few seconds before letting me go and kissing the corner of my left eye.

"But you really shouldn't have done this." I told him once we'd seperated.

He mussed my hair, which I'd spent a fair bit of time on, and laughed at the look on my face. "Hurry up and put it on. I'm hungry."

I laughed once; he was always hungry, and left him again, walking back into the bathroom. I pulled the dress on as carefully as I could, struggling a bit to pull the zip up at the back. When it was on properly, I picked up my bright red stockings and went back to my room. The color of them wouldn't look overly nice with the green, blue, yellow, and peachy colors of the flowers that covered the black background on my dress.

"Perfect fit." I said, spinning around in a circle while Quil watched me closely as I stepped back into my room. He looked down at the ground for a moment, then back up. "What're you doing?"

"Changing my stockings. It's too cold just to wear socks." I grabbed some white stockings instead and pulled them on quickly, wondering which shoes I was going to wear. I decided on a pair of old, black Converse and grabbed Quil's old jacket -- I still hadn't given it back to him -- out of my closet before looking up at him when I was ready. "Still hungry?"

"Let's go." he said, grabbing me before I had time to react and running me out to his truck, locking the front door behind us.

"Put me down, please." I begged him weakly, trying to pull my dress around my thighs in case I flashed any of the neighbors if they were around.

He laughed as he opened his car door and climbed in, letting go of me when he had sat down on the seat. I shook my head and slid over to my side of the truck. "How long'll we be at the Cullen's for?"

"I don't know...why?"

"Just, we usually go to out special place on our birthdays, is all." I mumbled, pulling my feet up on the seat while making sure not to get my dress wrinkled up.

"We can go there after, if you want." he said as he turned a corner.

"Okay."

When we were almost at the Cullen's mansion, he started laughing. I narrowed my eyes as I saw multiple cars parked out the front. This didn't look like just a lunch. The massive _Happy Birthday, Claire!_ sign that hung over the entrance of the white porch added to my suspiscions. It looked like it had been specially made, and Alice wouldn't have gone to all that trouble just for the lunch I'd been told about.

"Quil...?" I said in a strangled voice, turning to him with one of my eyebrows raised.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Alice couldn't resist. She said Nessie's birthday was too far away and she wanted something before it."

"She's so pathetic." I sighed as he stopped the car.

I raced him across the massive lawn to the porch, puffed when I finally got there. He laughed and waited 'til I'd met him halfway along the porch to walk the rest of the way and open the big, white door.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" about a hundred people shouted as the two of us walked through the doors. I jumped amazingly high, blushed a little, then shook my head as Alice ran, laughing, toward me and pulled me into a gentle hug. "Surprise!" she said happily, releasing me and kissing my cheek.

"You're a bitch." I muttered. She giggled and rubbed my head softly before giving Quil a quick hug.

Nessie and Jake were the second to me. They both hugged me and told me happy birthday seperately before letting me mingle with the rest of the people that were there.

I was surprised to see how many people I knew. I mean, I knew there were more people that weren't here that I'd met throughout my years, but there was still a fair amount of people partying in and outside the mansion. Alice had set up a few massive tables full of sugary candy, telling me that it _was_ my 'sweet' sixteenth. She'd decorated the walls with big, decorative candy wrappers and cardboard lollipops and things, too.

"Guess who?!" an excited voice asked from behind me as two hands went over my eyes. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. I could tell from the temperature of the hands on my face that the girl was human, so I ran through them all and tried to find out who she was. She didn't give me enough time to think too much into it, though. She let go of my face and spun me around, pulling me into an extremely tight hug.

"Sam--let go!" I gasped, trying to push her away from me.

She giggled and let go of me, kissing my cheek on the way. "Quil give ya the dress yet?"

"I'm wearing it, Sam." I told her, giving her a blank look.

She snorted and pulled it out from my thigh. "I saw that." she played with the black material for a few seconds before looking back at me. "Hey, that Payton guy's really nice. You should've invited _him_ down when you came over that time."

"Payton..." I looked around the room. Payton had his eyes glued to Sam while I talked to her. And not like he glued his eyes to anyone. He was watching her as closely as Jacob was watching Nessie. As closely as Sam was watching Emily. Oh...

"Yeah...that guy." she said, pointing to him as she caught his eye and smiled widely. "And no offence or anything, but I think he's a better looker than your Quil..."

I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Like I said, Sam; there's nothing going on between us. But Payton's the best. You should definitely spend some quality time with him today. You'll like him."

She smiled and kissed my cheek one more time before joining the newly-Imprinted boy on the other side of the room. I sighed in disappointment and turned to anyone else who I could talk to.

It was enough that people I didn't know were being Imprinted on. It was horrible when one of my own blood relatives got an Imprint of her own, no matter how distant she was. I couldn't help but feel jealous for Sam. She didn't even know anything about this stuff, and she found her soul mate! Not to mention how much it'd kill Payton when she left for California again...

"Here ya go." Quil said, coming up behind me and handing me a massive, pink and white swirly lollipop. I stared at it in amazement before nibbling at the top. It was going to be impossible to get through this.

"Thanks." I murmured. We stood there, looking around the room for a few moments, before I opened my mouth again, not looking up at him as I spoke. "So guess what?"

"What?"

"You've got another Imprint to deal with."

"Huh?" he asked, looking down to me with his eyebrows pulled together.

I nodded to where Payton was talking to Sam. He was using his hands a lot, and she was nodding and smiling, so it couldn't have been going too bad for him.

"Oh...oh crap." Quil said, scratching his head as he watched them. "What's Payton going to do when she goes back to California?"

"That's what I was thinking." I murmured.

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**I hope you like them. When I get home, I'll be getting ready to go on another holiday with my mum -- :D -- but I can assure you that Claire and Quil will be together within those couple of days or less that I have. Sorry I can't get it up sooner!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	52. Chapter Fifty One

**All holiday, all I was thinking was: 'Update, update, update...' So, I'm here! Finally!**

**Thanks to the people who added this story to their favourites alerts, and to these wonderful people who reviewed; twi-nighter, HeyI'mSarah, alynawt, leydyan22, weesh, spannieren, Chickedy-pea, XxsweetcakexX, guys in my head, bookworm1545, xXGh0stXx, vampiremom1221, Shouldna, Amiko-san, Ginaaaa, Asha123, Lara, xolanixo, allgirlsloveavampire, MargoPix, SuperSumer, ShadowInTheNight1, Twilightlove20, nessaa, A., Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, krizue, twilightaddict323, Yumi Stern, alicefan98 and laurazuleta18!**

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**Chapter 51**

"Present time!" Alice announced loudly after a couple of hours. I looked up from where I was standing with my mother, Trinity and Emily as she skipped through the people with a box wrapped in colorful paper. She set it on the table that held about twenty other presents -- I _really_ hadn't been looking forward to opening them -- and placed it on the side, looking at me expectantly. "C'mon! Take a seat, and get openin'!" she said, pulling out a chair and motioning for me to sit down.

I glanced around nervously at the people watching me and walked to where Alice was standing. I sat down after giving her a quick glare and stared at the leg of the table before she shoved the first box in my hands. "From me and Jasper."

"Alice, you said the dress was from yo--"

"Yeah, so this is from Jasper." she said. I frowned. Nessie's Bride's maid's dresses were really expensive, and I didn't want Alice spending that kind of money on me ever again. This would just make me feel horrible.

The box she had given me was the same size and shape of a shoebox, like Quil's had been, but it was heavier, so I was convinced that it was actually shoes. Instead of sitting there and waiting for someone to tear off the paper for me out of frustration, I stared at the package and pulled off the wrapping myself. I lifted the lid of the shoebox once all the paper was gone and gasped soflty.

"Whoa. They're so pretty!" I said, pulling out the black shoes. They were my first ever pair of heels, and were made out of a shiny, leathery material. They were higher than any shoes I'd ever worn before, but I knew that, for these shoes, I'd walk in them until I had it perfect.

I set them on the floor next to my chair (because my mother had taught me not to put new shoes on a table while growing up), and thanked Alice and Jasper, giving them both a warm smile. I stopped smiling a tiny bit when Alice handed me the next present.

At the end of the present-opening session, I was pretty happy with what I'd gotten. Kelsi, Sally, Cory, Dyllan, Carter and Zach had pooled their money together to get me a descent hair straightener after Kelsi had complained about it so much. Edward and Bella (but Edward had had the idea, I was guessing) had given me a really nice sound system that was sure to stand out in my room, and Emmett and Rosalie had given me a generous amount of my favorite CDs for it.

I'd gotten a few of Nessie's favorite novels off her, and Jacob had carved an owl out of a chunk of wood and painted it lightly to give to me. Sam and Annalise (and Alex) had given me a pair of light blue-gray skinny-legged jeans. The Quileute boys had decided to have a bit of fun and buy me a cheap space heater as a joke, saying they were sick of trying to keep me warm in their card, which also contained a bit of money from them. I shook my head and laughed at them as I read it, but half of the people there looked confused as to why they had gotten me such a thing, while the other half laughed loudly.

I'd also gotten things for my hair from Seth and his Imprint, some proper makeup from Kim and Jared, skin care stuff that smelled like lavendar from Rachel and Paul, and clothes from most of the other people.

It wasn't until the sun had started going down that Alice finally started letting people leave. I was one of the last to go, but my mother had convinced the Cullens to let her stay behind and help them clean up when everyone else had gone. I knew it would be quicker and easier for them to do it once she had left, but they let her after a few minutes of arguing. Sam and Annalise were staying with us while they were up here, so they had to stay behind and help, too, while Quil snuck me out.

"What're we doing?" I whispered to him, even though I knew the vampires inside would be able to hear me anyway.

"Going to the beach." he whispered back, smiling widely at me.

I laughed as I jumped in his car and he pulled out of their yard before I had my seatbelt on properly. "Ugh." I groaned, tugging on the strap. "Quil, it's stuck again."

He sighed in frustration and grabbed the strap off me, tugging it harder than I could have until it started working properly again. "Thanks." I said softly, clipping it in.

When we'd reached the beach, he stopped the car in the parking lot and we both got out, not bothering to lock the doors behind us. "We haven't been here for ages!" I said as we started down the beach toward the patch of trees that hid our spot.

When we'd reached the trees, he bent down so I could jump onto his back, locking his warm arms around my legs so I wouldn't fall off. I secured my arms around his neck and put my face into his left shoulder, keeping the branches and leaves off me. After a few seconds, we were through the trees, and onto the small, secluded area we called our own. I jumped off his back, almost unwillingly, and looked around for a few seconds.

Everything was still here. The bench we'd made out of driftwood and a few pieces from his grandfather's house before he'd died was still there, looking a little older than the last time I'd seen it. There was a castle in the shelter of the trees that ringed the spot, made out of bits of twigs, sticks and leaves. I was surprised it hadn't fallen down in storms or rain or anything, but I guess the trees had protected it for us.

"I've really missed this place." Quil said softly, sitting on the old bench. I folllowed him and sat next to him so our sides were touching. I had put his jacket on since we'd left the Cullen's house, but I was still freezing, and he only heated up one side of me. I grabbed his arm from his side and wrapped it around my shoulders. He chuckled and pulled me closer to him.

***

We were at the beach for a couple of hours until he said we should leave again. We had to go back to the Cullen's house and get my things. I thought I should thank Alice, as well, even though she had gone behind my back to host the party for me.

Mom was gone by the time we got there. I jumped out of the car and ran in ahead of Quil, walking in without knocking. Emmett and Rosalie were on the couch, intertwined as they watched a show. Emmett dropped the remote out of his hand and jumped up, giving me a huge hug.

"Claire!" he shouted, spinning me around. "Why don't ya come visit more?! We've missed you!"

I rolled my eyes and waited for him to put me down. "I know." I said sarcastically. "I'm so brilliant you crave for my presence after two hours."

He laughed and turned as Quil came through the door. "Where is everyone?"

"Jazz needed to go hunting halfway through the party, so Alice left for him when Claire's mom went home. Eddie and Bells decided to go do a little 'hunting' of their own. Carlisle's been dragged away with Esme so she can get his opinion on the house she's building for Jacob and Nessie, and the two of them've left for some alone time." Emmett listed off as he went to drop back onto the couch.

We didn't stick around for long. Emmett helped us carry a few of the things I got for my birthday out to Quil's truck while Rosalie stayed inside and waited for him to come back, and then we took off. I'd ring Alice later and thank her.

***

"Claire, get the door..." Sam groaned, rolling over as she ripped my pillow out from underneath my head and used it to cover her own with.

It took me a while to gain consciousness, then a few seconds to get off the living room floor and make my way across the small room to the front door. I opened it without checking who it was, expecting it to be Quil or someone.

"Payton..." oh, of course.

"Hey, Claire-bear." he greeted me, smiling widely. "Are your cousins still here?"

"Sam's through here." I muttered, standing aside to let him in.

He thanked me as he passed and chuckled when he saw Sam with my pillow over her head, facing away from the door. He sat on the arm chair behind her head and watched her while I made my way to the bathroom.

The two of them were awake by the time I got out of the shower, and laughing loudly about something Payton had said. I stood at the end of the hall and shook my head at him while he smiled down at Sam, who was laughing so hard she had tears forming in her eyes. Ana followed me into the kitchen to help me get breakfast ready.

"I'll help." she offered, taking the bowls from my hands.

"Oh...thanks." I said softly. I'd never spent much time with Annalise, so it was kind of awkward talking to her now.

She smiled and set them on the table while I grabbed the milk out of the fridge. "Sam seems to like this Payton guy."

"Yeah. He's great."

"Do _you _like him?" she asked me after a couple of seconds.

I snorted and poured cereal into my bowl. "No!"

"Oh. Sorry." she apologised quietly. "You just...seemed jealous when you were watching them before."

"No..." I murmured, putting the milk back in the fridge. Maybe Ana was just observant. At any rate, I hadn't been jealous of the attention Sam was recieving from Payton. Just the Imprint.

Payton decided to stick with us for the rest of the day. Quil and Embry came over, too, and it didn't take long for us to realize that we didn't want to be kooked up in my tiny house for the day. When Trinity decided to wake up a few hours early and bawl, we left. Mom had been in a bad enough mood because of sleep deprivation already.

"Do you think he could be any more conspicuous about it?" Quil asked me as we walked behind Sam and Payton. Payton had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and was mussing her hair as she laughed and told him to fuck off, only half meaning it.

Annalise sighed and checked her phone. "Alex hasn't messaged me all day, and Sam's got a frigging boyfriend. What is happening here?!"

***

"Oh. My. God!" Sam said that night, dropping onto my matress and giving me a wide smile. "I fricking _love_ Payton!"

"I think he'd be able to say the same thing about you..." I muttered quietly, turning the page of the book I was reading. She grabbed it out of my hands and set it on the floor. "Talk to me. Ana's not paying me any attention."

"Whyyyyyy?!" I moaned.

"Because she's more interested in your baby sister." she said, mistaking what my rhetorical question was about.

"So...is this going to be one of the gossip sessions where you babble for a couple of hours and I giggle and nod when appropriate?"

"Yes!"

"Get started, then." I said, leaning back onto the wall.

"Okay..." she sighed, smiling. "I really, really, _really _like Payton, Claire."

"That's good. He's such a nice guy." I told her. Might as well make this road easier for Payton, no matter how envious I was of it happening.

She sighed. "How do I tell him I like him?"

"You walk up to him and say; 'Payton, I'ma hungreh for some lovin'! Take me now!'"

She narrowed her eyes and chucked a pillow at my face. "That didn't work last time I tried it." I started laughing harder until she joined in. "Okay. Serious now." she said after a minute.

"Just...I really think he likes you. I don't know him as well as Quil or Jacob or Embry, but he's a good friend, and I know him good enough to see when he's got his eye on someone. And he doesn't flirt amazingly with anyone." I said, remembering the day. He'd been with her the whole time, and hardly let her go anywhere without her. I thought she might have gotten sick of him after a while, but she seemed to enjoy his company almost as much as he enjoyed her's.

"I hope he likes me." she said quietly, while picking at a rug my mother had made for me. "I've never liked anyone before."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah...have you? I mean; before Quil?"

I rolled my eyes and slapped her arm while sighing. It looked like he was about the only one who didn't know. Oh God...what if he _did_ know?!

"No." I answered. Quil was just about the only person I'd ever had a crush on, when you didn't count famous or fictional people.

"I really don't want to go home now..." she said thoughtfully. "I mean, I can't _wait_ to leave the rain behind...but not Payton."

"I'm sure he'll visit you. Really occasionally."

She gave me a strange look. "Seriously, Claire, you're talking about him like he's in love with me or something!" she snorted. "We've only known each other for a couple of days..."

"Ah, shut up, Sam." I told her, picking my book back up.

******************

**So...I want to try to get them together within five days, but I don't know how I'm going to go with that, so we'll see.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	53. Chapter Fifty Two

**Yay! I'm getting the next chapter up this afternoon! Are any of you proud of me?**

**Reviewing thank yous to; ****xXGh0stXx, Amiko-san, laurazuleta18, ObsessedWithTwilight20, allgirlsloveavampre, A., 90sgurl, MargoPix, HeyI'mSarah, lara austin, Sweet-Laughter, bookworm1545, guys in my head, twilightaddict323, iloverobpatt, vampiremom1221, XxsweetcakexX, spannieren and alynawt!**

**I hope you like this chapter... ;)**

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**Chapter 52**

Sam and Annalise had left three days after my party. Payton had come to Seattle airport with Quil, Embry and me to drop them off, and had ended up with tears rolling down his face after I'd broken up his and Sam's little make-out session and told her to get on the plane. He had her number, though, so (from what I'd heard) his eyes were constantly glued to the screen of his phone. I was getting kind of sick of it all. Payton was _my _friend first! He should have Imprinted on _me!_

I was getting ready to go back to school. The summer holidays had passed much too quickly, like every year, but I _really_ didn't want to go back. My friends from school hadn't met up with me the whole time, and the most contact we'd had was at my birthday party at the Cullens, and I can't remember spending much time with them even then. They'd also texted me once, asking if I wanted to go out with them as Kelsi had just gotten her liscence at seventeen-and-a-half years of age, and wanted to drive out to Port Angeles. I'd told them that I couldn't, because I was in California, but I probably wouldn't have gone, anyway. I didn't trust Kelsi to push me while I was in a shopping trolley, let alone drive me anywhere.

"What'cha doin', Claire?" Embry asked me as he seated himself at my kitchen table. Quil followed him, but took the seat next to me.

"Reading. I was supposed to have this book finished before the summer holidays, but I had better things to read. It's very boring."

"So look up the summary on the internet! That's what me, Jake and Quil used to do. We still passed tests and things." he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I sighed and set the book down on the table, closing it in the process. "Yeah, that'll do. I don't pass my tests all that well recently anyway."

"You've had a lot on your mind." Quil told me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

I smiled and looked at the table. Trinity's cry pierced the quiet from down the hall and I stood up straight away -- Mom had gone out grocery shopping. "What a coinkidink..." I murmured as I ran off toward my mother's room.

I lifted her from her crib and checked that nothing was wrong with her. She must have just woken up and felt like annoying me. The thunder outside had probably added some effect to her waking. I carried her back into the kitchen with me, holding her tightly to my chest and rocking her, the whole time wishing she'd shut up.

"Moody little bitch..." I muttered bitterly as I got back into the kitchen with the guys.

"She's awake through the day." Quil said in surprise. I shrugged my shoulders, debating with myself whether Mom would yell at me or not for throwing the baby out of the window.

"You can have her, if you want." I said, passing her to Quil. I knew Embry would never want to hold her. He'd always pretended to be busy with his shoelace or something in the past when I'd asked him.

Quil took her without saying anything. I dropped into my seat and put my head in my hands. I had a pretty nasty headache, and the thing just _wouldn't shut up!!_

Embry stood up, putting his hands in the pockets of his sweat pants and looked around the kitchen. "Hey, Claire, can I make some lunch?"

"Sure." I said, pointing to the fridge. "Everything's in there."

"Make me a sandwich, Embry." Quil said loudly, over Trinity.

I glared at the baby in Quil arms with my eyes half closed. I needed something to cure my head...

"Here." Embry said, dropping Quil's plate in front of him. He glanced at me before his eyes travelled to Trinity. "Oh -- did you want...one...Claire...?"

I narrowed my eyes at him as Quil looked up to see what was wrong. He was still looking Trinity in the eye, and she stopped crying as she stared back at him. He sucked in a deep breath, blinked a couple of times, then reached out and took her tiny hand. "Uhmm..." It took me a whole two seconds to realize what was going on.

No! No, that couldn't be right. Embry had been here plenty of times with Trinity right in front of him, and it hadn't had any effect on him. Then I remembered Trinity's sleeping habits. Her eyes had always been closed when Embry was around...

So, I handled the situation in the calmest matter I was able to.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I shouted, standing from the table as quickly as I could and storming to the door.

I was so, so, so angry. Okay, Sam's Imprint with Payton was okay, because I hardly knew her, but my _sister?!_ That was just wrong.

I was swearing to myself under my breath as I left my house and started walking in the direction on First Beach. I don't exactly know why I was going there. To drown myself maybe. I just wanted some time to think about all the depressing things that had happened in my life and cry over how pathetic I was.

Apparently Quil didn't think that was such a good idea.

I noticed he was following behind me just as the beach came into view. I turned around and gave him a harsh glare, then kept walking, hoping he would get the picture. I kept walking toward the beach. I could hardly tell that it was the middle of a thunderstorm and I was completely drenched and my favorite shoes in the whole world would take at least two days to dry and it was so windy I felt like I was going to fly away. But I cared that my stupid little sister was going to have one of the best lives imaginable. I hated her so much.

"Claire!" Quil called over a crack of thunder. I shook my head and kept walking, down First Beach. He kept following. I broke through the trees, and, for the first time in my life, walked onto our own special place all by myself. It was a few seconds before he got through after me, and by that time I was especially pissed.

"Piss off, Quil!" I shouted, walking to the opposite end of the small area.

He shook his head and took a step toward me. "Claire, you have every right to be pissed, but Embry couldn't help this! Don't be angry at him!"

"Embry?" I repeated. "I'm not angry at fucking Embry! I'm angry at my fucking sister! She's a baby, and already she's got her soul mate picked out for her! This is fucking ridiculous!" I screamed, ripping at my hair angilly.

"Settle down!" he yelled, moving closer to me, so he was standing just in front of the little bench. I backed up even further from him and felt tears stinging my eyes. At least he wouldn't be able to tell I was crying in this weather.

"Shut up, Quil! Why're you here?! Go back and celebrate with your friend! I don't care! I'll come home in a few hours, just leave me alone!" I sobbed loudly.

"No, I'm here for yo--"

"What the _fuck?!_ You don't need to feel all sorry for me, Quil!" I screamed at him. "You're just annoying me! Just fuck off!"

"Oh my God!" he screamed. I jumped at how loud and angry his voice sounded. "Why don't you just open your fucking eyes, Claire?!" he shouted back at me. My eyes widened when he swore. I'd never heard anything like that come out of his mouth before, but he'd gotten my attention.

"You're so fucking ignorant! Wake up!"

"What...?" I shook my head in confusion. What the hell was up with him?

He groaned in frustration and closed his eyes for a second before shaking his head at me. "Why the _hell_ do you think I stuck around all this time?! Because I found pleasure in having a two-year-old as a friend?! Are you fucking stupid or what?!"

I frowned at him. "Quil, I don--"

"Yes, you do!" he told me angrilly. "Just -- take two seconds to think things through, and you'll work it all out!"

I paused, not looking away from him. Surely he couldn't be talking about what I'd taken it to mean...

Oh my God.

A million memories of growing up hit me at once. Quil was in _all_ of them. Drawing and painting pictures together on that tiny table in the corner of my room. Having him read to me when I couldn't be bothered myself. Teaching me how to ride a bike. Letting me dress him up whenever I wanted. Taking me to our special place when there was something important on. Watching stupid kiddie movies with me. Playing Monopoly with me when it was too rainy to go outside. Staying with me while I was sick. Laughing and telling me I looked gorgeous when I'd just woken up with my makeup smudged everywhere. Including me in everything he normally wouldn't tell anyone about. Letting me get away with anything, no matter how bad it was. Helping me through all the crap that had gone on in the last couple of years. Watching me closely when I did something that had even the slightest chance of resulting in me hurting myself. Buying me things that were well out of his price range. Making sure I always had the best time possible. Taking me everywhere with him. And...

Acting oddly quiet whenever something came up about me wanting an Imprint so badly.

How the hell hadn't I seen it quicker?!

As soon as all of it had run through my head, my legs started moving. I honestly don't know how. I really didn't have enough intention behind it. When I'd reached him, I jumped up onto our bench, wrapped my arms around his neck, and crushed my lips to his. For something so massive going on in my life right then, it was amazing how many things still managed to run through my head.

_Ah! I don't know how to kiss! What if I'm doing it wrong?!_

_Holy crap...I'm kissing Quil Ateara!_

_What if he didn't want to kiss me...?_

_Oh my God! I hope I didn't mistake what he was telling me to mean that he'd Imprinted on me. How embarrassing..._

As soon as he started kissing me back, the thoughts vanished, though. On the bench, I was almost as tall as him, so he didn't really need to bend over. I pulled him down as far as I could with my arms around his neck, anyway. I just couldn't seem to get my arms to loosen. They were tight around him, and I all but forgot how I was supposed to let go.

Our kissing softened from the harsh way it had been when I'd first gotten to him after about ten mind blowing seconds. The whole time my heart was beating so loudly I knew he'd be able to hear it. I could feel his, too, and it wasn't exactly as weak as usual. I tried to tell him how much I loved him through the movement of our lips together, but I couldn't do anything that would even come close.

His hands slid to my lower back, pulling me closer to him, and I smiled, pulling my lips away softly. I leant my forehead against him, and his nose nudged mine gently as he looked up at me through his eyelashes. I smiled wider at him, feeling new tears running down my face. Then, on a spur-of-the-moment thought, I pulled back suddenly and slapped him as hard as I could across his face.

*******

**QPOV**

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Claire shouted. She stood up from the table quicker than I thought she would be able to, almost pushing her chair over with the back of her legs in the process, and stomped her way toward the front door.

I gave a quick look to Embry, gave him a small, congratulative smile, and followed after Claire. I really didn't want her catching another cold in this weather, and I wanted to try to cheer her up after the incident inside.

I really was happy for Embry. He'd felt like the odd one out a lot of the time, and, though he tried to hide it a lot, we could all sense it. Jake, he and I had spent a lot of time together while we were growing up, and it had been rare that one of us would accomplish something the other two hadn't. None of our families had had much money, we were average students, and we were just enjoying our days as they passed. When I'd Imprinted, and then Jacob, Embry had started feeling like he was the less important out of the group.

Outside the rain was pouring the heaviest it had all week, and every ten seconds a flash of lightning would strike the sky, catching my eye with the blue, purple and silver blazes. The roads were covered in water, and I watched Claire closely, in case she slipped on them.

She was walking quickly, toward First Beach, and didn't seem aware of the fact that I was following her. She kept walking, never looking around, never brushing the wet hair from her face. She just kept on through the rain and puddles.

As soon as First Beach came into view, her pace slowed down a tiny bit. I stepped through a particularly deep puddle, and she stopped completely, turning around to give me a pretty nasty look. She turned around again almost straight away and continuted on her quest to First Beach.

I knew she wasn't going to think about coming back without me egging her on a little. I really wanted her out of this weather as soon as possible, but I still didn't want to push her into anything.

"Claire!" I called, just as a crack of thunder sounded above us. I saw her dark head of hair shake from side-to-side, telling me silently that she didn't want to stop or talk to me, just as she reached the beach and started walking along it. It would be even more windy and cold there. She walked straight to the entrance of our secret place, and I was amazed that she broke through the trees by herself. She usually had me carry her, on account of spiders and bugs. I followed her through, getting onto the small part of the beach only a few seconds after her.

"Piss off, Quil!" she shouted. She walked to the other end of the little space, then turned around to look at me.

I shook my head, and took one step toward her. I didn't want her running up, getting angry, and bashing the shit out of me, so it was best just to take things slow when she was in moods like this. This one was by far the worst I'd ever endured, though, so I wasn't feeling all that confident. "Claire," I started, trying a little too hard not to raise my voice as loudly as I wanted to. I just wanted her to listen to me, and I knew she wouldn't. "You have every right to be angry, but Embry couldn't help this! Don't be angry at him!"

"Embry?" she asked me, frowning a little. "I'm not angry at fucking Embry! I'm angry at my fucking sister! She's a baby, and she's already got her soul mate picked out for her! This is fucking ridiculous!" she screamed as she knotted her fingers in her hair and tugged on it. I'd heard Claire swear a lot of times before, but there was a difference between when she was just playing around and when she was truly upset, and the words she used now were just helping her get a lot of her emotion out.

"Settle down!" I begged urgently, moving forward so I was standing at the end of the low bench we'd built years ago. I didn't want her hurting herself in any way, and I was much too tempted to walk over and try to pull her hands out of her hair. She took a couple of steps back from me, into the start of the plants ringing our little place.

"Shut up, Quil!" she said loudly with a sob. "Why're you here?! Go back and celebrate with your friend! I don't care! I'll come home in a few hours, just leave me alone!" I could tell she was seriously crying by the end of her words. She sounded like she was having a hard time getting them out of her throat.

"No," I started. I'd been with her through almost everything she needed help to get through in the past, and I wasn't about to walk out on her while she was so upset with herself now. "I'm here for yo--"

"What the _fuck?!"_ she cut me off. "You don't need to feel sorry for me, Quil! You're just annoying me! Just fuck off!"

That made me snap. How dare she think I was just there because I felt sorry for her?! How the hell could she think I wasn't there just because it was..._her?_ I _needed _to make her understand why I was here with her, trying to get her to pull through her newest problem quicker.

"Oh my God!" I screamed back at her. I felt really bad when she jumped, but it kept me going, because I knew I had her full attention. "Why don't you just open your fucking eyes, Claire?! You're so fucking ignorant! Wake up!" It was the first time in about fourteen years where I had used the fuck word, but I just needed her to listen to me. I was so frustrated.

"What...?" she shook her head, as if she had no idea what I was talking about.

I groaned in frustration, concentrating on my hands, which had picked up a violent shaking, with my eyes closed, then looked back up at her. I simply didn't care any more. If she wanted an Imprint, she was getting one. Even if she did decide she wanted someone else later, she'd know I'd always be here for her. I just wanted her to stop being upset, and this was the only way I could think of mending her. "Why the _hell_ do you think I stuck around all this time?!" I questioned her quickly. "Because I found pleasure in having a two-year-old as a friend?! Are you fucking stupid or what?!"

She frowned, still looking very confused. "Quil, I don--"

"Yes, you do!" I insisted, almost completely losing my temper. I shook my arms harshly, trying to get rid of the vibrations running through them from my shoulders, to my finger tips. "Just -- take two seconds to think things through, and you'll work things out!"

She kept looking at me, frowning as she concentrated on what I'd said. I watched her face closely as her expression changed several times, through confusion, to concentration, to recognition, to embarrassment, to disbelief.

I froze as she started runnning toward me. What was she going to do? Strangle me and call me a liar? I couldn't see anything on her face that gave her away, but it only took her a few seconds to launch herself at me, lock her arms around my neck and pull my face to hers.

I felt as if all the perfect pieces of my life were being woven together, blocking out all of the bad things that had ever happened to me. It had been big when I Imprinted, but this was bigger. When I'd Imprinted, it had given me Claire to centre my life around. Now that this was happening, it was as if all of the things that had worried me or put me down so much in the past were gone, and all that was left was the best of everything. Nothing in the past mattered right then. Just what was happening.

It took me almost a whole half a second to realize she was kissing me, then another half of a second to act on it and wrap my arms around her. I knotted my right fist in her dark hair as she pushed her face further and further into mine, her arms around my neck not giving me a chance to escape, even if I'd wanted to. I wondered if she'd think I was crazy, feeling how fast my heart was beating, but then I heard hers, and it was faster than ever.

It was over in thirty seconds. In that time, our kissing had gone from the harsh way Claire had used to make me see things her way, to a soft, gentle kind of kiss. She smiled and pulled away as I dropped both of my hands further down her back. I nudged her with my nose softly, my face tilting down so I had too look up to see her.

Everything was just so...perfect. The most perfect it had ever been in my life...until she pulled her hand away and swung it toward me as forcefully as she could.

I gasped at the contact Claire's hand had made with my face all of a sudden, and pulled my arms from her freezing waist, moving one to my cheek. "Wha--?"

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she inquired quickly.

I sighed, and she blinked a couple of times, her long eyelashes almost brushing against my cheek. "I just...wanted you to make your own choice." I told her. I didn't know how I was going to explain it to her. It had been hard enough to Jacob, who heard most of my thoughts. What if Claire didn't understand what I was trying to say? "And I knew if I told you, it might sway you, even if I wasn't the person you wanted. I just wanted you to have what you wanted the most..." I smirked. "I guess I kind of blew that, didn't I?"

"I have had the biggest crush on you for...I don't know how long. Ages." she told me guiltily.

I chuckled, my heart almost bursting at her words, removed my hand from my cheek, and kissed the corner of her eye, my heart rate quickening a little again. She closed them at the familiar contact, letting my lips hover there for an extra second. "I love you." I whispered, so quietly I didn't know if she's be able to hear it over the heavy rain and the sounds coming from the water of the beach.

She sighed and kissed my cheek, right where she'd slapped me. "I love you, too." We'd said the words often enough to each other through the time she was growing up, but they had so much more meaning now. I was so glad.

She wrapped my arms around me again and kissed my lips softly, smiling widely as I pulled her back into me. She was going to have a hard time getting away from me now.

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**Wait...what?! Well, it's about time. Haha! Okay, this chapter has been in my laptop for about four months, and I couldn't get it out quick enough...and I still can't get it as perfect as I want it to be...oh well.**

**Also -- Embry and Trinity. Too obvious, I know. But I had to have it in there to help with my plan of Claire and Quil's first kiss.**

**I've also been asked by ****leydyan22** to put this link up; facebook(dot)com/pages/Touche/105084266196367?ref=nf

**It's Kiowa Gordons band's FaceBook Fan Page (I don't use FaceBook...is that right?), and you'll be doing them a huge favour if you'd kindly follow them and become a fan, please and thank you. :)**

**I hope you liked it! I'll try to get another chapter up before I go on another holiday (this time with my mother!), but no promises...I don't know how much internet access I'll have for a while.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	54. Chapter Fifty Three

**Hello again! I'm tired, so the usual quick thank you to the people who added the story to their favourites and alerts list, and the reviewers; ****HeyI'mSarah, alynawt, MargoPix, xXGh0stXx, misswinterjayne, lovably17, guys in my head, ShadowInTheNight1, LockDown, asta123pasta, queenybee8289, allgirlsloveavampire, weesh, suzmac33, laurazuleta18, twi-nighter, XxsweetcakexX, bookworm1545, CherryCrush1901, Amiko-san, 42nd Blackbone, A., Sweet-Laughter, wowza811, krizue, Lara, Asha123, Paris Lautner, vampiremom1221, xolanixo, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, spannieren, Laura, MissEmbryRocks, ObsessedWithTwilight20, MissingMommy, Emma, EmbryForMe4, Chickedy-pea, Vamp-Feenfreak412 and Quileute Wolfpack Girl!**

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**Chapter 53**

**CPOV**

Embry had hardly looked shocked when I'd walked back into my tiny house with my hand in Quil's. He gave us one knowing smile, then looked back down at my baby sister, who was playing with one of his massive fingers.

We walked into my room without saying anything, and I sat in my hammock, staring at the weaved bracelets on my arms and waiting for him to start conversation. I didn't know why I felt nervous around him now. I mean, he's kissed me back, no matter how embarrassing the situation had been.

He was watching me closely until my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I jumped slightly, then took it out and checked the number.

"It's Alice..." I said, frowning at the screen. I flipped it open and held it to my ear. "Hello?"

"I've been expecting a call from you, Miss Young."

"Why?" I asked her. I thought she couldn't see the wolves. How would she have known what had happened?

She sighed dramatically into the other end of the phone. "Claire, Claire, Claire. I saw you telling Nessie and me. I think we should be able to find out straight away, _thank _you very much."

"How's it goin', Alice?" Quil asked loudly from my bookshelf.

There was a second's silence from the other end of the phone, then Alice spoke again. "We'll continue this later. Come for a visit as soon as you can. Love you, Claire."

"Love you, too, Alice." I said before hanging up the phone.

Quil chuckled and moved forward, taking my phone out of my hands and dropping it onto the small set of draws by my matress. He pulled me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head, not nearly as gentle as he usually would have. I really liked it.

"I can't believe you know." he sighed into my hair.

I laughed quietly. "I can't believe I actually have an Imprint. I must have seemed like the biggest idiot complaining about not having one while you were standing right next to me all those times."

"I wanted to scream it out to you." he admitted, pulling his lips away from my hair. "But I also wanted to leave it up to you to choose the ways of your life. I'm kind of sorry for screwing it up now, but not as sorry as I ever thought I would be."

"I'm glad I know now." I whispered.

"I'm amazed you didn't work it out before I had the chance to tell you." he said after a few seconds. "You usually pick up on things straight away."

"I considered it." I told him. "But I didn't say anything about it to anyone. I didn't want to seem like an idiot in case it wasn't true, and I kept telling myself it wasn't. All the other Imprints know they've been Imprinted on as soon as they find out their partners are wolves."

"So...I kept it okay?"

I laughed. "Yeah. And I enjoyed having you as a best friend while I grew up."

He pulled back, taking my upper arms in his massive, warm hands and bent down so he could look at me easier in the eyes. "Claire, I'm whatever you want." he told me earnestly. "Just let me know what you want me to be, and I will be."

"I want you to be with me all the time." I sighed, blinking quickly as I looked into his dark eyes. His hands tight on my arms weren't helping me think straight, and it was still hard to tell myself that he'd Imprinted on me.

He smiled peacefully and I pulled my lips up back at him. He looked from them back to my eyes a few times, then started leaning forward at an extremely slow pace. I straightened up in my seat a tiny bit, keeping my head down as it had been the whole time and felt my eyelids droop as his face got closer and closer to mine.

_This is so _awesome_!!!_ my mind screamed as he got so close I could feel his warm breath against my own, slightly-open lips. I leaned forward the tiniest bit, pressing my lips to his, so lightly I could barely feel him.

That was when Embry burst through the door. Quil sighed hopelessly and pulled back as I jumped backward, almost falling out of my hammock.

Embry looked from me to Quil with one of him eyebrows raised, giving us a mischevious grin. "What's going on in here, hmm?"

"Nothing." I murmured quietly, staring at my fingers.

Embry chuckled and wrapped his arm around Quil's shoulders. "Happy for you, brother. Wait 'til the others find out." he smiled widely, then stopped, looking horrified. "Does she--?"

"Yeah, she knows." Quil sighed, reaching over and taking one of my hands. "I couldn't help but let it slip."

"It's about dang time." Embry laughed.

"Dang?" I repeated, giving him a confused stare.

He looked out of the door longingly, then back to us. "Trinity Diana Young's just out there with your mother. I don't want her to pick up any bad language."

"I thought you hated when I started that?" Quil asked him, narrowing his beautiful eyes.

Embry shrugged. "I see where you were coming from now. I understand."

"So...are you happy that you've found your Imprint, or do you still wish you'd been able to stay single like you were planning?" I asked him. Embry had expressed a lot of him opinions on this particular subject, but after having his very own Imprint for little over two hours, he seemed pretty satisfied with his life.

"I'm so glad I found her." he sighed. "I mean, I've heard how everyone else thinks about their Imprints through the pack, how Quil thinks about you, but it was never nearly as strong as the actual thing. No matter what we tell you about it, Claire, you'll never be able to understand it."

"I think I understand enough." I said quietly as I looked up at Quil.

***

"Back to school tomorrow..." Quil murmured quietly.

We were both in my room, sitting on my matress, watching one of those really bad romance/comedy movies that are on television...the kind that aren't even funny. Quil was right behind me, pulling me into his chest while I crossed my legs in his lap. We hadn't kissed since we were on First Beach, but we'd become even closer than before.

The credits came up on the television screen, and I gladly switched it off.

"Don't remind me..."

"You'll have fun." he assured me, his arms tightening around me.

I sighed and leaned back, further into his chest. It was freezing outside, even though there was still almost six months until winter, and my mother could never afford heating and air conditioning, so Quil was the best thing I had. "You sure you don't want to go back and try to graduate? You're still sixteen..."

"Naw, I had enough of school fourteen years ago." he chuckled, kissing the side of my face rougher than usual. I closed my eyes and turned my head toward him, my lips catching his cheek.

"Kelsi and Sally'll thing they're still my best friends in the whole world, even though they had nothing to do with me all holidays. Well, except for my party."

"They've been good friends to you." he said softly.

"You've been better." I mumbled, stretching my arms above my head and yawning. "Did Mom go to bed?"

"About an hour ago."

"I'm so tired."

"Go to sleep then."

I smiled and let him pull my blankets down on my matress, tucking me in gently. "Are you warm enough?"

"I'm in the place you were sitting two seconds ago." I reminded him, smiling sleepily. "I think I'll be warm enough."

"Okay," he laughed. "I'll pick you up in the morning." he bent down and kissed the corner of my eye softly, pulling back up and watching me cosely for a few seconds.

My eyes flicked to his lips a couple of times before I leant up a few inches and kissed them softly. He brushed my hair back from my face just before we pulled away and traced my nose as I fell back against my pillow.

"I think I might get cold through the night..." I said slowly, looking to my left, where there was a wide space of empty matress. "What if I get hypothermia?!"

He laughed, but still stood up, rubbing his eyes. "I'll see you in the morning, Claire-bear."

"Wait," I called after him as he reached my door. He turned around slowly, looking at me with a question in his eyes. "Stay here tonight?"

He frowned to himself for a few seconds, looked toward my closed door, then let go of the handle and turned back to me. "Okay." he sighed. "But that means that you're still going to have to set your alarm. I won't be able to wake you up myself if I'm still asleep."

I smiled widely and grabbed my phone, setting my alarm to the latest time that would still allow me to sleep in as long as I could. He climbed onto my matress next to me and pulled my covers over the two of us, even though I knew he was far from needing them. He wrapped his warm arms around me as soon as I'd turned off my lamp and pulled me into his warm side, kissing my hair.

I rolled over in his arms so I was facing him and kissed his lips, not as soft as I had before. He kissed me back for a few seconds, then I pulled away. "I love you." I whispered, before resting my head on my pillow again and snuggling into his side.

He sighed and tightened his arms around me, holding me to him so gently it must have been difficult to do. I felt so safe.

"I love you more." he said quietly.

***

I only woke up twice through the night. Both of them were because of Trinity's crying breaking the perfect silence in the house. I stayed awake until I could no longer hear my mother complaining, but instead Embry humming soothing words to his Imprint. He'd made a habit of sleeping on our couch in case there was something wrong with her, and Mom seemed more relieved than wary about the situation. After getting used to Quil having me most of the time while I was a baby, I think Embry's situation didn't seem all that unusual to her.

"She's not getting any less annoying..." I grumbled as Quil took my hands from in front of me and held them both in one of his own. My back was moulded into his, and, even though I was amazingly hot smushed up against him, I liked the feeling. It was just that the other side of me was almost frozen from the cold air coming through my open window.

"Embry's got her now." he whispered, pausing as we heard my mother cough. We didn't know what she'd say if she walked in on Quil being in here with me, but I was guessing she wouldn't smile and clap and decide to throw a party about it.

"Good..." I mumbled, squeezing his hot hand. I pulled it up to my face and kissed it gently before letting it fall back to my stomach and turning into my pillow for more sleep.

***

"Claire-bear, your alarm went off five minutes ago."

"I didn't hear it." I murmured quietly, hoping I was still dreaming.

He chuckled and kissed the tip of my nose gently, sitting up as he did. "I stopped it. I didn't think you'd want to wake up just from that sound."

"Thanks..." I muttered, doing my best to sit up myself. "I really don't want to go back to school..." I moaned, rubbing my eyes as quickly as I could.

He sighed and brushed my hair back from my face, looking down at me sadly. "I don't want you to, either. But I'll be there to pick you up early, and I'm not dropping you off until two seconds before the first bell."

I kissed his lips as softly as I could, then rested my head against his shoulder until my mother knocked on my door, telling me to get up and get ready. I sighed in annoyance and climbed off my matress, grabbing my bag from the foot of my door on my way to the kitchen. Quil had climbed out of my bedroom window as I'd left the room, so I was assuming he'd come through the front door after going home and getting changed out of his pajamas. That's why I laughed to myself when I heard him knocking on our front door less than a minute later.

"Who's that?" Mom asked me from where she was cutting up different fruits for our breakfast.

I shrugged and walked through the living room, past the sleeping Embry with Trinity's crib pulled almost all the way to the couch he'd collapsed on, and opened the front door, smiling widely.

"Good morning." I said happily, opening the door wide enough for him to step through.

He smiled back, wider than I would've been able to, and took a couple of steps inside, pulling me into his arms on the way. He lifted me from the ground and held me tightly to him, kissing the corner of my eye, then setting me back down on the ground again. "I missed you." he told me sincerely.

I grabbed his hand and began tugging him to the kitchen, but he stopped when he noticed Embry on the couch. "Look at the two of them." he scoffed. Trinity and Embry's faces were turned toward each other in their sleep, and he was sleeping in a position that was sure to be uncomfortable, but would definitely make him quicker at checking on my baby sister if she were to start crying again.

"Poor Embry." I muttered, starting my walk into the kitchen again.

"Morning, Marylyn." Quil greeted my mother as he took a seat at the table. He grabbed me as I went to walk past him and pulled me into his lap, kissing the top of my head.

"Good morning, Quil." she sighed, her back still to us as she finished off the big bowl of fruit. She grabbed three smaller bowls and brought them to the table, setting them in front of each of us. "Are you here to get your roomie?" she asked him, giving the two of us a what she thought was inconspicuous look from her spot across the table.

Quil chuckled as I moved into the seat next to him and started dishing himself out some fruit. "I don't know...he seems to have taken a liking to Trinity."

"I've noticed." Mom murmured. "I feel like I'm not a good mother. Both of my daughters were taken from me by teenage boys when they were only babies..."

The three of us laughed, causing Embry to break out of his sleep and join us for breakfast.

******************

_**YAAAWWWWWNNNN...**_**I'll update when I'm awake.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	55. Chapter Fifty Four

**I'm so, so, sooo sorry! For how long it took me to update, I meant.**

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**Chapter 54**

"I don't want to get out..." I groaned, annoyed as Quil and I looked out of his truck's windows, to my school.

He sighed and took a lock of my hair, playing with it gently. "I don't want you to, either. But your mom'll probably have something to say if I keep you to myself on your first day back..."

"She doesn't have to know." I muttered bitterly.

He sighed and leant over, giving me a warm hug. "I'll be here waiting for you long before you get out of class. Text me if you need anything."

"Okay." I said softly. I pulled out of his hug as the bell rang and stared at him for a few seconds before kissing him softly and opening the door and walking out of the truck, into the rain.

"Oh my God!" I jumped at Kelsi and Sally being right in front of me.

"You have _so_ much to explain." Sally said as Kelsi grabbed my arm and the two of them led me into school.

"I _told_ you it would happen! I _told_ you!" Kelsi said in my face.

"What?" I asked her, playing dumb.

They both gave me unamused looks and broke out in smiles. "You and Quil!" Sally said excitedly.

"Of course, it was a little obvious it'd happen." Kelce continued.

"Oh, you two are so in love already!"

"I reckon you'll be going out longer than anyone I've ever been with."

"Well, duh! Claire's liked Quil forever...oh my God, did he know you were crushing on him? I mean, it was really obvious."

"I don't think he'd care. He'll propose to her before she can think twice about liking him."

"Aw, and we get to be your bridesmaid's, right, Claire?"

"And your children will be named after us."

"Okay!" I said loudly, wrapping my arms around their shoulders before they could say anything else and towing them into the school. "You two've got to get a hold of yourselves and learn to listen to me."

"Does that mean he _isn't_ the best sex you've ever had?"

"Kelsi, I'm a virgin." I reminded her.

She narrowed her eyes at me, then straightened back up. "Does that mean you and Quil haven't done _anything_ yet?"

"We've kissed...?"

The two of them gave me the type of look I used to give to the younger children on the reservation before Sally opened her mouth. "Our little Clairy's so innocent."

I gave them a tiny smile and a small shove each as I turned to go to home room. "You two are more than a year older than me; just remember that."

"Well, well, well. Look who's decided to show up this year!" Kelsi tutted as we made our way to our first lesson of our last year. Dyllan was sitting at one of the tables, laughing at something Cory was telling him. The three of us got close enough to hear what they were saying, and found out it wasn't the most innocent of subjects.

"Cory, shut up!" Sally said, her cheeks turning red over her tan. "You don't _tell_ people that!"

"You tell Kelsi and Claire what we do..." he said, his eyes widening in fear as she stormed over to him.

She stopped and ran her hands through her hair. "Yeah, but not like _that! _You're so disgusting." she turned to Zach, who was seated next to Cory and motioned for him to get out of his seat. "Move."

Zach stood up and didn't even have enough time to grab his bag before Sally took up his spot. He turned to the desk behind him, where I was now sitting with Dyllan, then sighed and made his way over to the desk Kelsi was sitting at.

"I heard you and Carter're getting pretty serious." I said quietly as our lesson started.

He nodded, a small smile playing around his lips. "He's so great."

"So have you told him about...the whole wolf thing?" I asked him.

"Not yet." he sighed, staring at his pen.

I frowned. "Why not? He's gonna need to know sooner or later."

"Yeah, but I don't know how he's going to act." he muttered. "I don't want him to freak out and never want to speak to me again."

"Aw, Dyllan, that's where _I _come in!" I said happily, leaning into his side for a second. "And I doubt if you'll need me to get him to come back to you, anyway. He's completely head-over-heels for you, and, knowing Carter, he'll probably just think it's sexy."

"I guess..."

"So when are you telling him?"

"I don't know."

"Soon." I made him promise. "Before Christmas."

"Fine." he agreed. He smirked for a few seconds, then looked up from his book. "So, I heard you and Quil were getting pretty serious." he repeated what I'd uncomfortably started him on with a grin.

I narrowed my eyes. _Darn wolves and their thoughts!_ "Oh, not that serious." I replied casually. "We haven't even made-out yet."

"You have in his head." he muttered quietly.

I giggled in my seat. "Aw, I'm probably the worst girlfriend in the world."

"Aw, I'm sure you're not." he said, mussing my hair gently. "How many times've you kissed?"

"Like, five." I snorted.

He shook his head in mock disappointment at me. "Aw, you're the worst girlfriend in the world."

I pushed the side of his head playfully, no longer worried if I'd hurt him or not. Our teacher stopped to give me a stern look, continuing with the lesson when I'd settled down in my seat for a few more seconds.

Dyllan snickered as Cory and Sally turned around to raise their eyebrows at me. I frowned back at him until they turned around again, and leaned closer so I could continue talking to him without disturbing the rest of the class.

"Did you tell the others? Cory and Zach and Kelsi and Sally?"

"About becoming a giant wolf?" he asked in confusion. "Claire, I thought it was against the --"

"No, not about the whole wolf thing." I said, cutting him off. "About Carter?"

"Oh, no." he said quietly, looking down again. "I don't know if I want to tell them yet."

"Why not?"

"Because Zach and Cory'd rip me off, and I want to keep my friends." he said, giving them each a quick glance. Neither of them were looking our way.

"Don't you want them to know how happy you are with him?" I asked him. "You didn't have a problem with telling your parents."

"They just congratulated me for finally coming out of the closet." he chuckled. "No, I do want to tell them. I just want to get in the pattern of coming to school and hanging out with you all again, and then I'll tell them. I haven't seen them nearly as much as I used to, and it's like I don't know them as well."

"You'll get there." I told him, rubbing his shoulders. "And I'll still be your best buddie, no matter what." I said, smiling widely as the teacher cleared his throat for my attention again.

I practically sprinted out of school after the bell had rung. I spotted Quil's truck as soon as I'd made it out of the building I had been having my lesson in and ran to it, dodging the few people in my way.

He leaned over and opened my door for me just before I got to the car. I jumped in, pulling it shut behind me and leaned over to kiss him quickly before strapping myself in. "Hey,"

"How was school?" he asked as he pulled out, onto the road.

"Alright." I sighed. "Dyllan's back."

"Yeah, he was thinking about going back a while ago. Was he blabbing about Carter the whole time?"

"Hardly." I snorted. "I had to dig stuff out of him."

When we'd gotten back to my house, Trinity was crying while my mother bounced her to try to get her to shut up. She gave us both a tired smile as we walked through the door. "Quil, you don't know what time Embry finishes work, do you?"

Embry had started at Jake's garage after Payton cut back his hours, making it easier for him to get to California at least once a fortnight. The whole time he was in Forks, he was on the phone to Sam, anyway.

"Give him another hour." Quil said over Trinity's wails as he followed me into my room.

I groaned in frustration and sunk onto my matress, kicking my bag into the corner of my room in the process.

"What's wrong, Claire-bear?" he asked, sitting next to me and wrapping his arms around me.

I leaned into his side gently, never able to get over how great the warmth of his body felt against my skin. "I'm just so sick of Trinity never shutting up. Mom's tired. I'm tired. Embry's going to be too tired to work soon."

"You sleep okay once she stops." he murmured, pulling me onto his lap and resting his mouth on my hair. "And if it bothers you that much, you could come and stay with me."

I didn't have anything to say to that. I swallowed, reminded myself to continue with my breathing, and looked sideways, as if I had a chance of seeing him clearly. I had no idea what he meant by his last statement.

He seemed to know where my silence was coming from, because he pulled back and his arms loosened from around me. "I didn't mean like _that, _Claire-bear. I just...you seemed a little annoyed at being woken up every night, and I was thinking how much quieter my apartment is. Embry's usually here now anyways, so you could sleep in his room if you wanted --"

"No, I know." I said quietly, turning slightly and pressing two of my fingers against his warm lips to shut him up. "And I'd love to. But wouldn't it be a pain for you when I have to get to school and stuff?"

"It doesn't bother me." he told me honestly. "I start work an hour after you start school a few days through the week, anyway, so it's really no trouble."

"Thanks, Quil." I murmured, leaning my head back against his shoulder.

He took my hands in his, resting them in my lap and played with my fingers. "Whatever you want, Claire." he reminded me, bending his neck to kiss the corner of my eye.

By sunset that night, Quil was carrying my two bags into his apartment. I'd only brought my school bag, a change of clothes and my toiletries, as well as my Quil doll, so I didn't feel too guilty about walking in empty handed.

Mom had agreed to me staying at Quil's straight away. It had happened in the past, and as far as my mother knew, Quil and I were still just best friends. Embry had stayed at my house, wanting to be close to Trinity in case she was upset again, and my mother hadn't had a problem with that. I, personally, thought she was just happy to have time to sleep on her hands again.

"So...where am I sleeping?" I asked him, stopping in the hall between his and Embry's room. I loved being with him, but the times where things got a little awkward bugged me. _They'll disappear as more happens between us._.. a voice said softly from inside my head. Trying desperately to get the images I had rolling through my mind away, I looked up at Quill as I waited for his answer.

His eyes flicked to his door, then back down to me. "Wherever you want. It's your decision."

"Okay." I said softly. I turned to his door and walked in, dumping the bags I'd just grabbed from him on the floor at the base of his huge bed. I kicked off my shoes, chucked my doll on my side of the bed, and walked into the living room, where he was standing, facing away from me.

"How long do you think you'll be staying for?" he asked, turning back to me with an easy smile on his face.

I shrugged. "It doesn't really matter all that much, I guess. I only live a couple of minutes away."

"I'll keep you here until you get sick of me." he said, grabbing my hands and pulling me into him. He held me tightlty, letting his arms getting a little slacker as I stood on my tiptoes to reach his face. He bent down to bring his lips to mine and I kissed him gently a few times before getting a little rougher.

His lips were heavy and hard on mine, and I knew my neck would get kinked if I stood on the ground any longer, so I tightened my arms around his neck and jumped up, wrapping my legs around his waist and enjoying the new height I was at.

He moaned, almost sounding like he was trying to restrain himself, as I opened my mouth and dragged my tongue slowly over his bottom lip, just like Kelsi and Sally had taught me. His own joined mine and they moved together, through our mouths.

I knotted my fingers in his hands, knowing I couldn't hurt him, but wanting him to feel something, and pulled his face further into mine, having to lean back. His hands moved to my hips, holding me tightly to him as we reached the wall and I felt it press up against my back.

My fingers let go of his hair, and my hands trailed down, over his neck, to his shirt, where I ran my palms over his abs, still amazed at how much depth I could feel to them, even though the material of his shirt.

I almost jumped as I felt his warm fingers just under my shirt, still holding my hips tightly. He pulled his face from mine straight away and moved his hands, gently placing me back on the floor. His hands went to his face and he shook his head into them. I took them and pulled them away from his face, looking up at him with a questioning look on my face.

"You don't know how hard it is for me to stop..." he said, shaking his head at me.

I dropped his hands and moved forward once more, placing a light kiss on his cheek as he bent down warily. "It's okay, Quil." I said, not knowing exactly why. "Don't worry about it."

I cleared my throat and made my way to his room, pulling my pajamas out of my bag and putting them on slowly, thinking through just about a million things in my head.

Sure, things could get a little awkward between us at times, but when things like _that_ happened, it all just came natural. It didn't seem wrong, when I thought about it. It was just that I knew I wasn't ready to go any further just yet.

_Why not just get it over with?_ I thought to myself as I turned around and stared at myself in the mirror on the wall. I really needed a hairbrush right now. I pulled my fingers through it as this new thought mulled its way around my brain.

I knew I was going to lose my virginity to Quil. I knew I'd get married to him, too. And then we'd have kids. And then...what? He'd give up his wolf and I'd feel guilty for taking it away from me until I died?

Pushing that thought completely out of my head, I focused on the first thing. I definitely wasn't ready to do anything drastic. Quil was my first proper boyfriend, and we were only just starting our relationship. No matter how my friends acted, I wasn't like that. I wanted to concentrate on things and take our relationship seriously in case something happened and one of us got hurt from it.

_Take your time. _I told myself, nodding to my reflection. _There's no rush. You're only just sixteen. He'll stop phasing when you're in your early twenties, at the least. Who knows when you'll get married?..._

I sighed heavily, pulling my hair down one final time before walking to the door again.

**I have a bit of bad news...I haven't written all that many chapters after this one. Which means that I'll have to slow down a bit with my updating. But I'll keep writing and try to get them up as quickly as I can. I'm sorry.**

**That's all,**

**Chlowie, xo**


	56. Chapter Fifty Five

**I'm finally back! I was missing you guys! :)**

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**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 55**

**QPOV**

Claire and I laughed at the guy on the television screen at the same time as the clock ticked its way to midnight. My eyes trailed from the screen to her, where she was lying with her head in my lap and her legs stretching the length of the couch. She reached up without turning her head away and grabbed my biscep, holding it to the side of her face. I ran my fingers through her hair softly, wanting nothing more than to hug her as tightly as I could without breaking her.

She yawned widely and rolled over in my lap, her eyes locking on mine. "I'm tired..."

"I was just about to remind you of the time." I told her quietly.

She yawned one more time and sat up, rubbing her right eye. "I'll go and get ready for bed..." she said slowly, standing and trudging into the bathroom.

I watched her go and only stood up after I'd heard the door closed. I walked to my room and grabbed my pajama pants, pulling them on quickly and hesitating with my shirt. "It's Claire." I scolded myself quietly, ripping it off after a few seconds and chucking it into the basket in the corner of my room, along with the rest of my worn clothes.

It was stupid to even consider changing my ways around her now. It wasn't like we'd just met or anything. We knew everything about each other. She'd spent most of her life with me. I'd spent the only valuable years of mine with her. I knew if I did something to upset her, she'd tell me, and I'd go straight to making it better for her.

So...if she was the same person, why did I think of her as someone so different?

It wasn't like I liked her any less than I had before. I just thought of her differently, and it kind of made me forget that I'd taken care of her when she'd been learning to talk. She seemed like someone else. I came up with the solution of because I felt different toward her than I had the old Claire. I'd had feelings like this toward her for a while now, but I hadn't been able to do anything about it until I was sure she was ready and she really wanted _me._ I was still a little angry at myself for spilling the beans about our Imprint against my own rules, but relieved that I could just talk to her about it now. I couldn't even think about what I'd do if she _had _decided to choose someone else, anyway.

I knocked on the door of the bathroom a couple of times and waited until Claire opened it quickly, her toothbrush hanging out the side of her mouth. She immediately turned to the sink and spat the rest of her toothpaste out, rinsing her mouth a couple of times as I put toothpaste on my own brush.

She smiled at me once in the mirror before turning and walking out, toward my bedroom. My eyes followed after her in the mirror until I couldn't see her anymore, then I concentrated on getting finished in the bathroom as quickly as I could.

**CPOV**

Quil walked into the room a couple of minutes after I'd made myself comfortable in his bed. I was lying on my side, away from the door, looking at one of the frames on his desk beside his bed. There were four frames, in total. One of them had a photo of he, Embry and Jacob while they were going to school. Another had a photo of me on his shoulders with Jacob, Nessie, Embry, Seth, Collin, Leah, Brady, Jared, Paul, Emily and Sam around us. The biggest there was a photo of me as a toddler holding Quil's hand as we walked down First Beach, both of us concentrating on the waves that were teasing my feet instead of Jacob holding the camera and calling to us. And the last, in the tiny frame, was a picture of him with a younger girl, and two older people. The man in the frame had his arm wrapped around his wife, who was smiling contentedly at the camera, her hand on the teenage Quil's shoulder. Quil was smiling widely with his arm around the little girl's shoulders, pretending to pull her hair next to him. The four of them looked so...happy.

Quil flicked on his lamp, turned off the light, folded down the comforter, leaving a thin blanket on for me, despite how cold the night was, and climbed into the bed beside me. "Claire?" he asked after a few moments.

I took the photo off the desk and held it up so he could see it. "When's the last time you went to visit your family?"

"I see them all the time." he said. "It's not exactly hard when you live in a town with less than four hundred people."

"No, I mean really _visited _them. Like, went to spend the day with them? I'll bet they're missing you."

"I saw them after your dad's funeral. I went back to their house from the funeral, remember?"

"Quil, that was ages ago. They're your _family._ You have to go and see them. Really soon." I told him. "Why don't you see them anymore?"

"I've...just been occupied with other things..." he said, his voice getting quieter.

"Other things like...me?"

"Yeah,"

Well, that made me feel kind of bad... "How about we go and visit them this weekend?"

"You want to go to my parent's house with me?" he asked, frowning slightly.

I smiled. "Sure. I haven't seen them for so long. And I haven't actually met your sister yet."

"Huyana." he said absently. "It means 'falling rain' in Miwok."

"Huyana," I repeated, smiling at the little girl in the picture as I set it back down on his desk.

He sighed and turned off the lamp beside his bed. "Okay. We'll go and see them."

"Good." I approved, moving closer to him.

He tucked the blanket under my back and stroked the side of my face lightly, leaning in to brush his lips against mine. "You're so beautiful." he murmured against them, pulling me closer to him with his hand that was resting on my back. I closed my eyes and smiled, wondering if this was the happiest I'd ever felt.

"Should I wear this, or jeans and a shirt or a skirt?" I asked him, holding out my arms, as if they would help him see my outfit better.

He rubbed his eyes and mussed his hair, turning away from the bathroom mirror and looked me over. "Claire, you look perfect. They won't care what you wear."

"Are you sure? Are the stockings too bright? Should I wear sandals or something?"

He put a hand over my mouth and smiled. "They. Won't. Care. I think you should stick with what you've got on. It shows more of _you_. And if, by any chance, they don't like it, I'll make sure they don't say anything about it."

"They're your parents." I said through his hands, my eyes narrowing up at him.

He chuckled, taking his hand off my mouth and leaning down to kiss me softly in stead. "And they're going to love you. You haven't been there since you were four, and you've changed a little since then."

I smiled unassuringly and left the bathroom, running my fingers through the ends of my hair nervously. We were leaving in twenty minutes, and Quil was still walking around in only his pajama pants. Which I didn't have such as a negative thought toward.

I didn't really enjoy meeting people. Especially when I was the only one around that didn't know them. I was guessing them being my boyfriend's parents wasn't going to be any better.

I looked up as he walked out of the bathroom, now in a pair of dark blue jeans that hung low on his hips. I followed him back into his room. "New jeans?"

"Yeah...I got them a few weeks ago." he murmured, looking through his closet.

"What're you doing?"

"Trying to find a shirt."

"You'd look better without one." I said under my breath, sitting on the foot of his bed. He grabbed a black t-shirt and pulled it over his head. "What's Huyana like?" I asked him quietly.

He smiled. "She's great. She's really in-touch with the earth. She talks to the sky and the plants and the rain...hippie."

"Did her name have anything to do with that?" I asked him interestedly. I'd talked to the elements before, but I didn't spend all day doing it.

He laughed. "Maybe. I think you'll really like her. No one's never not gotten along with her."

"Good." I said, following him out of his apartment.

I think I was smiling that entire car ride. I couldn't remember ever being in Quil's parent's house, but I knew I had before. I'd met Huyana when I was a baby, so I couldn't remember a thing about her, but apparently she kept to herself rather than travelling in groups with a bunch of people her age, so I didn't see her around the reservation too much like her parents.

It took a couple of minutes to get to the house. It was small, like most on the reservation, and had a huge garden out the front. My eyes locked on a figure a bit smaller than me. Her back was turned from the truck and her long, black hair fell just past her waist in thick braids. She'd wrapped leather around them and stuck feathers through them. I smiled widely. I liked her already.

As we pulled up, she straightened and turned, looking over her shoulder with wide, dark eyes. Her full lips pulled up into a wide smile and she skipped toward the truck, her dress flapping around her knees and her bare feet digging into the damp ground.

"Fido!" she said, jumping up and clinging onto Quil.

He laughed loudly and spun her around in a circle, then placed her back on the ground. "Hey, Chepi!"

"I missed you so, so, so, so much!" she said, jumping excitedly.

He pulled one of her braids, then turned to me. "Do you remember Claire?"

"Yes!" she said, skipping forward and hugging me tightly. "Wow, you've grown! How are you?"

"Good," I said, unable to stop smiling.

"Mom and Dad're waiting for you. You have to come in right now." she said, marching toward the house. Quil smiled and shook his head.

"I thought her name was Huyana?"

"It is." he assured me. "Chepi's the Algonquin name for fairy. We call her it because she used to jump around like one when she was younger. Actually, she still does now. And she called me Fido because of my wolf."

"Huh." I said as we reached the front door. "The Powhatans spoke Algonquin. Are you related to Pocahontas?"

He shook his head while rolling his eyes and pushed the door open for me.

"Oh, Quil!" an elderly woman with long grey hair cried, running forward and wrapping her arms around him.

"Hey, Mom." he said, releasing her and kissing her cheek. "Where's Dad?"

"Getting lunch ready." she said, looking him over. "Have you grown again?"

"No, Mom." he laughed. "Remember you told me that if I did, I'd be in trouble?"

"Just as well..." she said, tapping his nose. She turned to me and gave me a gentle hug. "Hello, Claire."

"Hey, Mrs. Ateara." I murmured, returning the hug.

She tksed and pulled back, tapping my shoulder. "It's Kai." she told me, smiling contentedly.

I looked up to Quil and an older man pretending to fight. His father wrapped an arm around his son's neck and pulled him down to his height, mussing his hair. "Why don't you visit more?"

Quil was laughing too loudly to reply, but he stood out of his father's grasp and looked toward me. "Dad, Claire's here."

"So she is." he said, walking forward and taking my hand. "Now, listen; I know Kai's probably already given you a whole lecture on this, but I don't want any of that 'Mr. Ateara' crap, okay? It's David, and nothing more."

"Okay," I said, laughing slightly.

"And may I just say Quil is a lucky boy." he winked at me before turning and walking through the door that I guessed led to the kitchen. I smiled and hugged Quil as he took me into his warm arms, kissing my hair.

"See? They're not scary." he mumbled into my ear.

Huyana snorted. "Says he who's ten foot and turns into a monster."

"First time I've ever heard you call an animal a monster before, Sis. What's goin' on?"

"Just trying to get my point across." she said, smiling and swaying from side to side.

I enjoyed being at Quil's parent's house. I'd never really gotten to know them, and I regretted waiting so long to. Quil's dad was what movies portrayed, what I'd never had, and I was a little jealous of the stories he'd tell me from across the table, about Quil growing up and dealing with a sister eleven years younger than him. Quil had been born years before his parents had planned, so they'd lost a lot of their years to taking care of their children, but they said they didn't regret it at all.

"Poor Quil had to carry the dead cat all the way home." Kai chuckled, slapping her son on the shoulder. "He always hated cats. But he loved his little sister more than anything, so he coped through a lot of things for her."

"The cat wasn't dead when I asked him to start carrying it back." Huyana mumbled, staring with a pout at the table in front of her.

I smiled at his sister without knowing. She was one of those people that everyone just had to like. There was nothing annoying or infuriating about her. And she was so cute! She was years older than me, but smaller and had a way about her that made her seem younger, no matter what her appearance portrayed.

"How has Marylyn been?" David asked, putting his last boiled potato in his mouth.

I paused, determined to swallow the stupid amount of food I'd stuffed into my mouth before spraying it all over my boyfriend's father, took a big sip of water to wash down the half-eaten chunks, and swallowed painfully before answering. "She's a little sleep-deprived, but she's okay. Embry's been helping her out a lot lately.

David and Kai swapped a smirk with each other while Huyana sighed peacefully, staying at her fork. "We were very honoured that Embry chose to ring us after he Imprinted, actually." Kai said, laughing. "Too bad he waited until two in the morning to tell us."

"He seemed pretty happy with himself." Quil said, rubbing his forehead in memory. "I'm just glad he's decided to stay at Claire's house most nights. He'd still be waking us up talking about her if he hadn't."

I smiled as Kai and David laughed. Huyana lifted her head slowly and studied the two of us for a few seconds before turning away from my glance.

"Thanks for lunch, Kai. It was delicious." I said five minutes later, excusing myself from the table and walking after Huyana, who was beckoning to me with one of her small hands, half-way through a door.

I followed her into the room and took a seat on a small, floor-cushion-type thing, while she seated herself on the tiny bed pressed up against the short wall of her rooom. The walls weren't covered in dream catchers and posters of bands like mine, but peeling brown wallpaper and hand-made decorations. There was a small milk jug on a stool in the corner of the room which held browning flowers and a book that looked like she had been the one to make it. Other than those things, there was a small bookcase that only came up to my hip that held a few thin books, the pages yellowing with age, despite the perfect condition they'd been kept in.

Huyana kicked her feet a tiny bit while throwing her worn, shoulder bag on the floor beside her bed. She wiped her dirt-stained feet against the knitted blanket ontop of her white comforter and smiled down at me.

"You're living with my brother?"

"Just temporarily." I told her, remembering the look she'd given me from before. "I just wanted to get away from Trinity's crying for a few nights, and Quil offered to let me stay with him."

"Claire, I really like you." she said. Her out-of-the-blue comments made me like her even more.

"I like you, too, Huyana." I told her, smiling back at her.

"You can call me Chepi, if you want." she said in a high, sing-song kind of voice, getting up and walking a few steps to the opposite side of her room. She bent over at the milk jug and ran her finger lightly across one of the dead flowers. "You never last long..." she said softly. "Maybe I should stop bringing you in..."

She stopped and turned toward me. "Claire, I'm really happy Quil found you. I can't think of anyone that'd be more perfect for him, and I saw him with a fair few girls while we were growing up. Of course, I was only young, so I can't remember them very well. From what I can remember, though, you're the best."

"Aw, thanks, Chepi." I said happily, despite the 'fair few girls' comment.

"And I bet you two share something between you. I mean, more than the other girls he was with." she said, looking down in her lap.

It took me a few minutes to get to where she was coming from. "Like..._with_ with? Like...doing stuff?"

She frowned back at me. "Uhh...yeah? Didn't you say you'd been staying with him?"

"We haven't _done_ anything." I said urgently.

"Oh..." she nodded her head slowly once. "Don't worry. I think there was only one girl he was _with_. Two at the most." she assured me, then snapped her eyes up to the door of her room. "Knock and enter," she said, showing all of her perfect teeth off with a smile.

**I'll try to get the next chapter up quicker than the last. I'm thinking maybe once a week? I'll pick a day. :)**

**Hope you liked the chapter!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	57. Chapter Fifty Six

**Hey, everyone. Sorry about the late update. I had intentions to get this up on Wednesday, but it just didn't happen. But, I decided I had to get it up before I left for my dad's house this weekend. And I only have an hour and my hair's still unfixed and frizzing up everywhere, so I'm gonna hurry!**

**Thanks to; ****HeyI'mSarah, Shouldna, spannieren, VampireAngel91, XxsweetcakexX, bookworm1545, weesh, LockDown, guys in my head, ShadowInTheNight1, twilightaddict323, laurazuleta18, allgirlsloveavampire, vampiremom1221, A., BookloverLaura, Asha123, MissingMommy, , Tiarn JW, xXGh0stXx, ObsessedWithTwilight20, and Paris Lautner ****for reviewing.**

**Chapter 56**

Quil pretended to knock on the feathers, shells and beads hanging from the top of Huyana's door frame. He bent down and walked into the room, staring straight at his sister the whole time and walking so he was about a step in front of me. "What's going on in here?" he asked her quietly.

She grinned and picked at her nails. "Just catching up on girl talk." she told him. "You wouldn't be interested."

"I'm sure not." he muttered, extending a hand in my direction without looking down at me. "Mind if I take her? She's _my_ guest, and she's not supposed to be in _your_ room."

"Fiiiine." Huyana sighed dramatically. "But she has to be home in time for you to finish your homework."

Quil laughed and pulled me toward the door, pausing before he'd bent down to get underneath it and turning his head back over his shoulder to talk to his sister. "Oh, Chepi? Just remember; I don't listen with your ears anymore. I have the ears of the wolf."

She gave him a wide-eyed glance before he chuckled and pulled me further down the hall of their small house.

"I love your sister." I said quietly, allowing him to pull me into his side.

"Yeah, she's alright. And she's been speaking like a normal girl this afternoon." he said in an approved tone. "Usually you have to concentrate really hard on her words to make out what she's trying to tell you."

"Guess she likes me so much she's prepared to change herself for me." I said, giving him a cheeky smile.

He rolled his eyes and stopped outside a closed door. He kicked the bottom of it a lot softer than I knew he could, and it flung open from where it had been struck, hitting the wall behind it.

"Ew. Who lived in here?" I asked in a disgusted tone, smiling over my shoulder at him as I walked through the door and looked around the room.

There wasn't much to the room. There was a bookcase the same as Huyana's on one side of his room with books crammed into it and CDs piled ontop of it.

"So this is where you brought all those many, many girls while you were going through high school." I said, biting my lip as I walked once around the small room.

He watched me closely, his eyebrows pulling together a little. "Claire, Huyana didn't piss you off with that, did she?"

"No," I assured him. I sat on the foot of his bed and looked up at him, trying my best to look sincere. "Why would she?"

"Just talking aboout...me and other girls..." he murmured, kicking at the bottom of his wall.

I sighed and sat myself up by my hands behind me on the matress. "Quil, I'd already figured. Jake and Embry've said things in the past about how much of a pimp you were, and not many guys like that get away without any in high school."

He looked away, looking a little embarrassed. Maybe even ashamed, then looked back at me. "Are you sure you're okay with it?"

"I'm fine!" I said with a small laugh without humour. I looked at my hands until he spoke again.

"I have a confession." he said after a while. I looked up for the rest of his speech. "There was only one girl. Huyana says it like there were a million."

"Was she sexier than me?" I asked, playfully pulling the hem of my dress up my thigh.

He eyed it closely, then looked back at my eyes, moving toward me casually. "Claire," he said practically, taking a seat next to me and running his hand down my side, from my chest to the bottom of my dress. "No one will ever be as sexy as you." he told me, pulling my dress to its original length.

**QPOV**

I left my hand on her thigh, studying her face with my eyes. She looked up at me without lifting her face so she was looking out of the tops of her eyes, and gave me the cutest smile imaginable. I grinned back at her and leaned in, brushing my lips lightly against hers, then pulling away.

"Why do you do that?" she asked me quietly.

"What?"

"You pull away before you kiss me." she pouted.

I chuckled quietly and leaned back toward her, taking her lips with my own and kissing her slowly. She sighed, her cold breath dancing across my skin, and turned on her side so she could put one of her hands in my hair. It was a few more seconds before she pulled away, biting her lips with a small smile.

"Why do you do that?" I joked.

She traced a finger down the line of my nose, then the shape of my lips. I parted them quickly and bit her finger gently, so fast she didn't notice at first. She grinned, then continued her tracing of my features, up past my ear, then into my hair. She knotted some around her finger, but it slipped and she dropped her hand.

"You know, I've never seen your hair any longer than it is now. Have you ever had it past your ears or anything?"

"What, like Jake's? I did when I was younger. A few years before I phased, I guess. It's just easier, not having long hair. And it's cooler when I don't look like one of those English Sheep Dogs." I said, mussing my hair.

"What are you talking about?" she asked quietly, her eyes half-closed and concentrating on my lips. "English Sheep Dogs're sexy."

"Woof woof." I said unenthusiastically.

She grinned, looked up at me with her big eyes and rubbed her nose against mine. She climbed off my bed and started looking around my room again, grabbing random things and studying them for a few seconds before putting them back where they belonged.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at an old, thick book. "A photo album?" she looked at me as I nodded. "Can I have a look?" she asked.

"Sure..." I said cautiously. I couldn't remember what I'd stuck in there, but I was almost certain there'd be things in there that I didn't want her seeing.

She smiled as she turned the first page. It was me, smiling widely at the camera and holding Huyana as a baby. She looked at it for a moment, then turned the page. She moved up to sit between my legs and lay against my chest, now that I'd sat up.

"Aw, is this your prom?" she asked, pointing to a picture of Jake, Embry and me as we smiled, all dressed up in tuxes. Embry was in the middle with his arms wrapped around our shoulders and Jake had his hand clenched into a fist and was throwing it up in the air.

"Yeah." I confirmed.

She frowned. "I thought you dropped out of school before the end of the year?"

"We did. But we thought we should crash the prom to show how good we really were, deep down inside."

She laughed quietly and turned the page, pausing at the picture on the left side. "Who's this?"

"Eliza...something." I murmured, a little uncomfortable at her seeing the picture.

Eliza and I were dressed up for the prom, Jake and Embry pointing to us and pretending to make-out in the background. Both of us were smiling at the camera. Eliza was wearing a long, form-fitting green dress with her hair curled and sitting in a neat knot on the top of her head. I had my arm wrapped around her waist and was holding her close to me.

"She moved when she graduated. I haven't seen her since."

"She's really, really pretty." Claire said, still not turning the page.

"She's not _that_ pretty." I said softly, tightening my hands on her waist and kissing under her ear. Eliza had been one of the prettiest, if not, _the_ prettiest girl at our school. But she looked as attractive as a rock next to Claire.

She giggled and leaned away from me on reflex, putting one of her hands to my arm and sighing. "Well, she was lucky."

"I know. She got to hang out with the three of us." I joked as she turned the page to see another one of Jake, Embry and me. This time we were on the edge of the forest, Embry holding up his middle finger to Emily, who was taking the photo while Sam was phased and patrolling. All I was doing was giving her a look that asked why she bothered.

Claire turned that page and paused. "Is that me?" she asked.

I nodded against her hair and rested my chin against her shoulder.

It was a photo of the two of us in Emily's kitchen. I was sitting in one of her old chairs with Claire in my arms, watching her with a smile on my face as she played in the cake that had been set in front of her. There was a smudge of icing on my face from her little fingers, and it was matted through her hair, too.

"That was a couple of hours after we Imprinted..." I said quietly, taking both of her hands in mine. "Your parents went out to talk to Sam, and Emily got it quickly before they came back." I said, laughing slightly as I remembered. "They couldn't work out why I was staring at you so much while we were eating, then they were even more confused about me asking to hold you."

She turned her head and kissed my jaw. "This is the last picture." she said quietly.

I flicked through the rest of the pages, even though I knew she was right, then leaned back against my headboard, pulling her with me, and settled for playing with her hands. "That's when I started leaving my family behind."

**I think I'll udate every Tuesday from now on...just because it's easy to remember because that's the day I have a singing lesson every week. So I WILL remember!**

**Okay, going to do my hair. Hope you liked this chapter. See you next Tuesday!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	58. Chapter Fifty Seven

**Hello, everybody! It's Tuesday, and I'm back, as promised!**

**To the mysterious a; I'm sorry if this isn't your kind of story, and if you find it mostly boring. Oh, and I try to put as much into this story as I can without it being over dramatic like Bold and the Beautiful...you didn't have to read all you did if you weren't enjoying it, though, but thank you for your views.**

**Thank you to these other people who reviewed; ****BlueAngel132, alynawt, HeyI'mSarah, bookworm1545, xXGh0stXx, BookloverLaura, MissingMommy, vampiremom1221, laurazuleta18, Bella-with-the-blue-eyes, allgirlsloveavampire, MainlyMaddison, guys in my head and asha123!**

**Chapter 57**

Renée had obviously accepted the fact that Bella and her family were all a little...different. When I saw her for the wedding rehersals, she seemed perfectly comfortable. She was deep in a conversation with Charlie and Sue, who was clinging happily to her partner's arm while he spoke to his ex-wife. I was glad there were people who enoyed their ex's. It made me a little sad to think of those who hated them.

Alice wouldn't let the bride's maids wear their dresses to the rehersals, but she let us try them on. Mine was a perfect fit. Surprise, surprise... I spun around in front of the mirror for a few minutes before I took it off. It was the most elegant dress I'd ever worn in my life.

"Claire, it suits you beautifully!" Alice cried triumphantly after she'd practically stripped me and forced the dress onto me.

"I really like it." I murmured, sliding my hands down the sides of it.

"Just think about Quil's reaction to it." Rose said with a slight laugh, eyeing me from across the room. It was a rare case that Rosalie treated me with this kind of friendship, so I gave her a small smile back, trying to put a heap of hapiness in it, and at the same time, doing my best to make it seem like I wasn't trying to hard to make her love me.

Nessie giggled and turned to me, running her hands all over my body and holding me close to her. "Oh, Claire! I need you now!" she said hotly into my ear in a scarily close imitation to Quil's voice.

I rolled my eyes and spun to face her quickly, wrapping my arms around her neck. "Take me on the table, you sexy beast!" I said in a stupid voice, wrapping one of my legs around her waist.

Alice and even Rose laughed with the two of us as we righted ourselves properly and fixed the dresses we were in.

As it was, Quil seemed pretty impressed in the dress I'd worn to the rehersal. I was wearing the shiny black heels I'd gotten for my birthday, and the dress I'd put with it was made out of a red tartan material. It had a big bow on the chest of it, then another on the top of the skirt, which I'd slightly puffed up with my thinnest petticoat.

He came up behind me while I was laughing almost hysterically at something Seth had said to Collin. I felt his warmth behind me before his hands placed themselves on my waist at my front. "Why'd you run off like that?" he joked, bending down to talk to me in a quieter voice.

I laughed and wrapped my arms around him behind me. "Seth stole me away."

"She's just too irresistable, Quil." he said, mussing my hair. I straightened it out with one of my hands while expecting Quil to laugh.

"Tell me about it..." he murmured, just loud enough for me to hear. I took a drink of my soda to hide the deep blush that had filled my cheeks. How many times had I told myself Quil would never think I was good-looking like that?

Collin gave the two of us a sly glance and his eyes flicked to Quil's hands, which were holding me tightly to him. "So...what've you two got planned for tonight?"

"Shut up, Collin." I said, aiming a kick at his shins while trying not to seem too embarrassed in front of Quil. Sure, I didn't want to seem like a complete nun in front of everyone in the room, but I also didn't want people making suggestive comments like that.

"Are you really sure you don't want to back out while you still have the chance, Ness?" Rosalie asked as she fixed one more bobby pin into the back of Nessie's hair.

Nessie gave her an annoyed look in the mirror while I flinched at Alice with the curling iron in my hair.

"Sorry, Claire, but if I don't pull it, they won't stay in as well!" she said, pulling it harder, probably just trying to prove her point.

"Rose, like I've said a million times, I'm positive about Jacob, and I know you know that he's perfect for me, and your comments are starting to get really old...we all know you secretly love him like your own brother more than Edward and Jasper..." Nessie said, standing from her chair and turning so her back was to the massive mirror. She looked over her shoulder to examine herself more, then checked her hair while Rose held a mirror up behind her so she could see the back.

Renesmee looked just as beautiful as her blonde aunt at that moment. Maybe even more so, if that were possible. Her hair had been straightened in some places and pulled up, resting in a stylish knot on the top of her head, while a few of her natural curls hung free to frame her face and fall on her shoulders. Her fringe was still out, but styled a different way, so her big, brown eyes stood out more than usual, and her make-up was done in all natural colors, but so it highlighted every single perfect inch of her face and gave her an impression of some kind of fallen angel.

Her dress had looked almost ordinary in the closet to how it looked on her. The satin it was made out of was a perfect white that looked as though it were illuminated and glowed (probably to show how pure she was), and it fit every curve of her body so greatly that it looked like it'd grown on her. There were tiny beads down the front of it in patterns that reminded me of exploding flowers, and it was sleeveless, so her shoulders were showing, pulled back like a professional model's, as always. It fell from her waist to the floor, not exactly full, but with a few layers that were shorter on the top, then floor-length underneath. The shoes she was wearing were beautiful heels with, what Alice had told me, real diamonds decorating the straps on the tops of them. Her toes were perfectly pedicured and painted with an amazingly shiny polish to stand out, even against the diamonds.

"Ness, you look breathtaking!" I told her, moving forward and hugging her.

She hugged me back, grinning hugely. "Thanks!" she said, speaking just a small bit like a little kid with her excitement.

"Are you nervous?" I asked her, grabbing her hands.

She shook her head. "Not at all. I probably will be as soon as I start walking out there, though."

The wedding was being held outside of the Cullen's mansion, because it was over-cast, but hadn't been raining for the past few days, which was really odd, but also really lucky. Alice had made sure that it wouldn't rain on the parade. We were waiting in the bathroom on the bottom floor to go out while everyone was under a big tarp, seated on chairs on the extremely green grass.

Bella and Edward suddenly appeared in the doorway and seemed at a loss for words at their daughter. Especially Bella, who hadn't seen her in our thoughts to begin with.

She walked forward at a human pace and enveloped her daughter in her arms, pulling her tightly to her without crushing her. Nessie was a few inches taller than her mother, but even with them both in heels of about the same height, so Bella burrowed her head in her shoulder and swayed the two of them back and forth. "You look so beautiful." she murmured.

"You really do, Nessie." Edward said, taking the two of them in his arms and leaning down to put a light kiss on Nessie's forehead. "Jacob's a lucky man." he chuckled, releasing the two of them. Bella broke away from Nessie and ran a hand down her dress, looking at her for a few more seconds before turning to the door.

"They're waiting to start, so..." she smiled one more time before turning and leaving the room.

I think I was more nervous than Nessie when the music instructed the three bride's maids to start walking down the aisle. I gave Nessie one last kiss on the cheek, grinned nervously as Rosalie told her a not-so-jokingly goodluck, and followed her and Alice out of the room.

There weren't all that many people at the wedding. Under fifty...Alice had wanted to invite every person (and by that, I mean vampire) they knew. The way I'd had it pictured, there were going to be about a hundred, but when I thought about it, Nessie rarely had visitors. And when she did, I wasn't allowed over. Most of the guests had awfully pale skin and beautiful faces, though, so I was a little more nervous with that as I walked toward the front of the ceremony. A few of them cast me glances and I looked away from their contact-covered eyes as quickly as I could.

Quil and Embry were standing with Jacob at the front of the crowd, and I gave Quil a big smile as I took my place across from him. He didn't smile back, but his eyes were wider than usual, and travelled down my form before flicking back to my own eyes as he shook his head. I bit my lip and looked him over with more than just a curious interest, enjoying seeing him in a tux for once.

Emmett was marrying them. I was one of the few who didn't think it was a bad idea, and it had most of the crowd laughing half the time he was going on.

"...And just think! Tonight's what you're getting married for, right? Because Edward's been keeping such a close eye on you both that you thought you'd just rush with it to get to the good stuff. Your poor mother went through the same..." he chuckled, then stopped when he looked away from Nessie and saw the expression on his bronze-haired brother's face. "Umm...okay. I pronounce you man and wife. You may now lock lips and get a tiny little hint of how the honeymoon's gonna go."

Nessie pushed his shoulder playfully, before moving forward and stretching her neck to let Jacob kiss her, not half as bad as what I'd seen them do before.

**QPOV**

It seemed like we'd been standing out in front of the people waiting for almost an hour when the music finally started playing. I broke out of my thoughts about Claire and myself instead of Jake and Nessie in a setting just like this, and straightened up in between Jake and Embry and looked toward the house from the trees of the forest.

Rosalie stepped through the door first, looking amazing like always in a tight, dark blue dress. She glanced around at everyone, looking as though she knew she was gorgeous and owned the place. Alice skipped out after her, grinning like a maniac at the front of the aisle, then Claire walked out, less gracefully and more nervously behind them. She looked up from the flowers in her hands, her eyes jumping around the seats on either side of her, then stopping in front of her as she continued to walk up the aisle.

Rose might've looked good in her dress, but compared to Claire, she looked like a squashed bug. Claire's curves showed up perfectly in her dress, and the color was just as perfect as light yellow for her complexion. Her hair was curled, which was something I wasn't used to, and it made her look impossibly more beautiful hanging over her shoulders. Her eye makeup had been done to make her lashes look fuller, and her eyes practically popped out at me. I swallowed a couple of times, tried to start breathing again and gave at least a hundred blinks before she was standing across from me. She smiled, and I did my best to smile back while looking her over again.

I didn't hear anything of what Emmett was saying, but I laughed with everyone else, anyway. I could take my eyes off Claire the whole time. As soon as Nessie had become a Black instead of a Cullen and everyone had left their places and started to mingle around the lawn, I moved to Claire, who was saying something long and congratulatory to Jake and Nessie, being the first to catch them, and waited until she'd hugged and kissed them both before taking her in my arms and lifting her off the ground.

"You have to stop doing this. It ruins my concentration on the important stuff." I whispered roughly into her ear.

She pulled the skirt of her dress down at the back and giggled quietly. "What am I doing now?"

"Don't let Alice dress you up anymore. It's bad enough when you just wake up and your eyes're half closed, and your hair's matted, and your clothes're all twisted and knotted up...it takes me a while to look away from you then, but when you're dressed up like this..." I put her back on the ground and took her upper-arms in my hands. "I did not pay attention to one other thing in that wedding."

"So glad I asked you to be one of my best mans." Jake said jokingly, coming up behind us with his arm wrapped around his wife.

I smiled and took my eyes off Claire for a few seconds so I could turn to them. "Hey, congratulations, guys." I said, pulling them both into a hug.

"Thanks." Nessie said happily, kissing my cheek as the three of us pulled away. "And we don't blame you for not being able to take your eyes off Claire. She's just the sexiest daym thang I've ever laid eyes on." she said, growling at her best friend.

**CPOV**

Jacob asked Quil if he'd mind the store while he and Nessie were on their honeymoon. Apparently he'd asked him weeks earlier, but I hadn't heard about it until their wedding.

When it was almost time for them to leave, Alice dragged me back into the house with Nessie.

"How're you feeling?" I asked her on her way to the bedroom Nessie had in the mansion.

She grimmaced and squeezed my hand. "Great. A little anxious. Even though it'll take ages to get there, but..."

"Where're you going?" I asked her.

She smiled widely. "To Esme's Island. The same place my parents went."

"Oh..." I nodded and looked ahead as we started up the stairs. I'd known the family was rich, but I had no idea they owned an _island_.

Alice grabbed two coat bags from Nessie's crammed closet while the two of us sat on the bed and waited for her. She unzipped both of them and held up the dresses for us to see. "Which one?"

The first was a deep scarlet color and looked floor-length. It had a halter neck and looked skin-tight, so it probably fit Nessie's curves as well as any dress could. The second was an emerald green color and was shorter than the first. The skirt would probably finish just before Nessie's knees, and it wasn't exactly tight, but it didn't flare out like most of my dresses, either. There were sequins in a decorative pattern on the front, and thin straps made of a shiny ribbon.

"That one." I said, pointing to the red one while Nessie nodded. "It looks more like Jacob's taste, though the other one's really, really pretty."

"Okay." Alice said, looking pleased the selection had been quick. She threw the dress to Nessie and paced the wall of shelves that held so many of Nessie's shoes. She pulled out a pair of heels the same red with many straps and beads on them and put them at the foot of Nessie's bed, while I helped her take off her wedding gown.

"I'll just run to the bathroom..." Alice said, flitting from the room as I finished helping Nessie out of her dress.

Alice was back with a small box before Nessie had even picked up the other dress. She stepped into it and waited for me to zip it up before dropping back onto the bed. Alice bent over in front of her and grabbed her hand, a bottle of blood red nail polish in the other hand.

"What underwear're you wearing?" she asked as she barely concentrated on Nessie's hands.

"The ones you gave me this morning." Nessie said. "The ones you said I could wear under my gown without them showing. The ones you said would make Jacob's eyes roll back into his head." Was it just me, or did _the_ Renesmee Cullen - oops, _Black_, actually blush at this last bit?

"Good." Alice said, swapping hands. "Claire, could you start pulling out Nessie's hair? Then brush it, please."

I followed her orders, making sure every knot and tangle was out of her long hair. The only problem was that some of it was curly, while some was straight now.

"Swap places." Alice said, standing to her original height, which didn't make all that much difference, to be honest. She took my place on the bed behind Nessie while I sat down in front of her and blew on her nails to try to make them dry quicker.

Within five minutes, Nessie's nails were perfect, her make-up was done to match her outfit, her shoes were on the right feet and her hair was back to what looked like its original curls, even though Alice had had at it with a curling iron for a few minutes. I honestly didn't know how she had finished it in such a small amount of time, but Alice never seemed to fail to amaze me.

"Done. Go down and make Jake want to get out of here." Alice said, grinning mischeviously.

Nessie shook her head and stood up, brushing a curl behind her ear. Alice had pinned it to her head, so most of it still hung loose, but it looked professional, and Nessie was now looking like she had just stepped off the red carpet instead of out of a bridal magazine.

"I'm borrowing that lipstick." I told them, smiling up at Nessie as she admired herself in the mirror.

"C'mon, Ness. Everyone's waiting." Alice said, opening the door and waiting for us to walk out before her.

"Oh my gosh, Nessie, you look gorgeous!" Bella said, pulling her daughter into what looked like a very tight embrace when we'd made it to the staircase. A few people had come into the house now, but most of them were still outside.

Quil caught me as I jumped off the stairs and kissed me softly before putting me down on the ground right next to him and wolf-whistling playfully as Nessie joined us. She rolled her eyes and smiled widely when Jacob walked over and wrapped his arms around her.

"I missed you." he said into her ear.

She grinned and hugged his waist tighter, nestling her face into him, but at the same time, avoiding getting any blood red lipstick on his shirt.

"Okay, time to go!" Jasper said, checking the clock on the wall.

There was a rush as Nessie's family crowded in on them, as well as a few of the Quileutes.

"Stay there all the time you want." Esme said, brushing Nessie's hair before kissing her forehead gently.

"Yeah," Emmett chuckled. "Until you get sick of each other." he threw an arm around Jake's shoulder and pulled his ear down to his mouth. "Go easy on her, eh, Jake? It's her first time and everything."

Jake pushed him off him and shook his head, half with amusement, while Nessie tried to ignore him.

Edward and Bella hugged Ness for at least a minute. Edward stayed next to her and leaned down as Bella moved away to give them some space. He murmured something to her that I couldn't pick up, and she nodded as he kissed her forehead. "I love you." he told her before walking away and letting Rose take his place.

She bent down and wrapped her arms around Nessie, giving her a not-so-gentle embrace and rocking her from side-to-side. "My little girl's all grown up!" she said, sobbing noises leaving her mouth although there were no tears to accompany them.

Emmett said a few jokes to her while giving her a bear hug without her feet on the ground, Jasper told her everything'd be alright, and Carlisle told her to remember what he'd told her while Edward looked almost depressed the whole time. I gave her a hug as tight as I could and told her I loved her and I'd miss her, then the Quileute guys had their share of good lucks to her and 'If he's no good, we'll make sure he knows.'s.

All too soon, they were getting into Jacob's Rabbit and driving into the trees, out of our sight.

**Did everyone like it? I hope so.**

**I'll be back next Tuesday. See you then!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	59. Chapter Fifty Eight

**Okay, getting this chapter up quickly, then going to do some math homework...whoo-hoo...**

**Thank you to these lovely people; ****lovably17, BookloverLaura, spannieren, Amiko-san, bookworm1545, megg.x, guys in my head, twilightaddict323, vampiremom1221, allgirlsloveavampire, HeyI'mSarah, alynawt, MissingMommy, laurazuleta18, weesh, twi-nighter, ObsessedWithTwilight20 and XxsweetcakexX**** for reviewing. You make me smile. :)**

**Chapter 58**

On Saturday, I took my place for the first time at the reception in Jake's garage. When Jake was working, Nessie took the job. Well, when she wanted to. I'd jumped at the chance to come in with Quil today. He'd been working all week, even when he hadn't needed to, while I was at school, and now that he had a shift, I'd decided to come with him.

Right now, he was working out in the rain while I spun around on the light blue chair behind the small desk. I'd been out there with him, sitting in the front seat of the car he was working on, but then it had started raining harder, so he'd sent me inside. There was a sheet of metal blocking my view from him, but my thoughts were on him anyway.

I was too busy scribbling on the sheets in front of me to notice the form standing a foot away from me.

I jumped as he cleared his throat, and looked up innocently. "You're all wet."

He chuckled. "Yeah, that happens."

"Are you going to kiss me?"

"I don't know...I might get you sick." he said. I could tell he was half-joking.

I sighed dramatically and jumped up onto the bench in between us, holding my hands together behind my back and brushing my lips to his as lightly as I could.

I pulled back, giving him a cheeky grin, even though his eyes were closed. I sat back in my swivelly chair and waited for him to open his eyes.

"That's not fair." he said, opening his eyes slowly and giving me a long look with no expression.

"I didn't want to catch a cold." I said, shrugging once as I picked at my nails.

And then, before I knew it, he'd jumped over the bench and was pushing me further into my seat with his lips crushing mine.

I giggled, unable to help myself, and locked my hands around the back of his neck. He softened his kissing after a few seconds, his warm thumb rubbing patterns on the side of my eye.

I pulled back from him and rubbed my nose against his. "You make all our kisses more boring than they have to be."

He sat up on the bench in front of me, grabbing my feet and resting them in his lap. "I don't really wanna go too far in the middle of Jake's garage."

"And at home?" oh my God, where had all this confidence come from?

He looked down and played with my feet for a few seconds without answering. "I just...wanted to be completely sure...you know...that you were ready...for stuff."

I took my legs off him and crossed my arm, swinging my chair from side to side. "Am I too immature for you to consider such things?"

He laughed silently a couple of times. "You know that's not what it is."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because. I wouldn't do this." he said, leaning down to me again and kissing me softly.

"That's all it is." I said, licking my lips.

"So far." he told me.

I watched him for what I think was at least a minute. He didn't even blink. He just sat there, watching me. I stood up slowly, taking a step toward him and kissed him softly, softer than we'd been kissing before. He was exactly the same height as I was standing up when he was sitting on the bench. I got rougher with him, trying not to smile at how he responded.

I looked up at him from under my lashes for half a second, then bit his bottom lip as hard as I could while still knowing it wouldn't hurt him. It probably would've broken the skin on someone else.

Quil growled, starting quietly, then getting louder. I pulled back, wondering if I'd done something wrong. I sat back in my chair, a little embarrassed, and looked at the bottom corner of the bench.

"Sorry."

"Why?" he asked, clearing his throat.

I looked back up at him, then to my hands. What the hell was I supposed to say to that? "Did I hurt you?"

He chuckled. "No,"

I looked back up at him. Talking was good. Talking didn't keep me in the depths of embarrassement. "You growled."

Now he looked away, scratching his head behind his ear uncomfortably. "Yeah, I...umm..."

"Now're you wishing I was more mature?" I asked him, grinning widely.

He looked back to me and sighed. "Come here." he said softly.

I stood and took the one step inbetween us to meet him at the bench. He took my waist, pulling me in between his legs so I was pressed up, right into the bench. He tightened one of his hands on my waist, then knotted chunks of my hair around his other one.

My hands were on his waist before he'd started kissing me. I don't know how, because he's pretty fast, but they were. It would've hurt, his amazingly warm lips on my almost-freezing ones, if it'd been anyone else but Quil, but I think if I were an ice statue and he made of fire, I wouldn't be able to care less.

Quil was on patrol. I was sitting in my room, watching _Breakfast at Tiffany's._ Embry was out in the living room, talking in an annoying voice. Trinity was laughing at everything he said. Mom was in her room, sound asleep.

The movie finished, and I turned it off, wishing I had a face as pretty as Audrey Hepburn had. I opened my door and made my way into the living room, where Embry was holding Trinity in his lap, and she was swiping her hands around for his nose. She'd gotten older, but hardly less annoying.

"Wanna go to Sissy?" he asked her, making her laugh at him again.

I sat down next to Embry and held out my arms for her. She reached out and grabbed my hair as soon as I had her, but I made no move to make her give it back. Last time I had, Embry had made an effort to tell me she didn't know any better, and it wasn't hurting me, so why couldn't she? It was a lot easier for everyone to let Trinity have her way when Embry was around.

"You're getting so fat!" I told her in a voice that came naturally when talking to little people. "Look at your big belly!" I blew a raspberry on her, laughing with her as Embry ticked one of her toes.

"She's getting prettier, too!" Embry said, running a hand over her hair, parts of which he'd pulled up in a little pony tail that stuck out from the side of her head. Trinity caught his fingers and put one of them in his mouth. "And she's getting teeth..."

"Can I change the channel? I think I've seen this episode of _Sesame Street..._" I said, already reaching for the remote.

"Yeah, but nothing too innapropriate for Trinity." Embry said, taking her back from me already and bouncing her in his lap.

I wasn't allowed to watch _Nightmare on Elm Street_,or even _Star Wars_, but Embry said Disney's original version of _Alice in Wonderland_ was okay.

"It's good that your sister's immature enough to want to watch this kind of thing, isn't it?" Embry crooned to Trinity as Alice started singing in the patch of flowers.

I rolled my eyes and pushed his shoulder, looking out the window. "It's getting dark."'

"How can you tell? It's been storming for the last few days."

"I wonder what the weather's like where Nessie and Jake are..." I mused quietly.

Embry chuckled beside me. "I doubt Jake and Nessie will be worried about the weather where they are. The activities Jake was thinking of don't involve much going outside."

"Much?" I asked grimly.

He grinned. "I don't think there was one place Jake didn't think of. He-"

"You're back!" I said happily, jumping off the couch and running to open the door for Quil.

"Thanks, Beautiful." he said, running one of his wet hands through my hair and kissing me softly, kicking the door closed behind him with his foot.

"Excuse me? There are infants in the room. Please leave to do your business."

"The plural was right." Quil said, pausing and mumbling his words on my lips.

I giggled and pulled him to my room. "Fine. It's not like _we_ worry about our surroundings. Or the weather." I said, grinning at Embry on my way, but Quil pulled back, stopping us just past the television.

"I had plans." he said, taking both of my hands.

"What plans?" I asked him, my face falling immediately. I'd been waiting all this time to see him and now he was leaving me again.

He laughed at my face and let go of my hands to pull the corners of my mouth up. "You're coming, Claire-bear." he told me quietly.

"Oh," I said, standing up straighter and still smiling when he let go of my mouth. "Good. What're we doing?"

"Going to Port Angeles." he said, continuing the walk to my room with me trailing behind him. "So I know you're going to want to change your mind about a thousand outfits before we actually leave."

"Oh, how well you know me." I said, opening my door and letting me walk in ahead of me. "And I think you should help me pick what I'm wearing, seeing as you're the one who organised the night. And you're the one that has to look at me."

"Like I'd ever look at you." he said, crossing to my closet without looking at me once to prove his point. He opened my closet and stood there for a moment, looking at all of my clothes.

I stepped past him and stood in the tiny space between him and my closet, running my hands through my clothes. I pulled out a short skirt with a heap of pink ruffles, a long sleeved, off-the-shoulder black shirt and some black tights, as well as a pair of really nice boots my mother had given me a couple of years earlier and turned to him. "Will this do?"

"It looks great." he joked, looking down at me in my pajamas.

I rolled my eyes and left him to go to the bathroom. I got dressed as quickly as I could, then pulled my boots on over my tights without doing them up. I took my hair down from the knot I'd pulled it up into a few hours before, brushed out the little mats that had made their way into it, then did my best to straighten the kinks in it. I put on a tiny bit of mascara, grabbed my berry flavoured lip balm from the window sill and met Quil back in my room.

"Ready." I said, smilling widely.

He looked me up and down for a few seconds, then back up to talk to me. "You were quick. Let's go."

I took his hand and he led me out of the house, saying goodbye to Embry on our way.

"The rain stopped." I said happily.

"It could've stopped a few minutes ago when I was walking in here." he muttered bitterly.

I wrapped my arm through his and started pulling him toward his truck. "I can't believe it hasn't broken down yet." I said as I waited for him to get my door open for me. It had rusted some way, and now it was really hard to get open. "Thanks."

"Yeah, I'm in need of a new car." he sighed, starting it up on his third try. "I'm trying to save up, but my money keeps dissappearing.

"Maybe we should stay home..." I said. Purely to show that I cared about him. I really wanted to go out, and I knew he wouldn't need the money he'd spend tonight to go toward a new truck.

"No, we're going out. I haven't been to the movies for ages, and the weather guy said that it wasn't going to rain all night.

"That looks like a storm coming, to me." I said, pointing out the window.

"We'll beat it." he told me, driving quickly out of the driveway.

When we got to Port Angeles we raced to the cinema. We only had a couple of minutes until the movie he'd bought tickets to started when we entered the big room full of chairs. We chose a seat right up the back and watched a few minutes of it before I turned to him.

"Aren't we supposed to not watch the movie?"

"What're you talking about?" he asked me, clearly confused.

I laughed silently. "When a couple come to the movies together, they're not supposed to watch the movie."

"Oh." he chuckled, looking down the rows of people. "Alright then."

He pretended to yawn, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me right into him, then he lifted my head and kissed me, knocking our box of popcorn over in the process.

I didn't catch a lot of the movie, but the tickets were still worth the money. A few kids a couple of rows in front of us thought it would be funny to start throwing their candy at us, but they stopped after Quil caught some of it without looking and ate it for himself. I think they were too amazed to try anything with us again.

When the movie was finished, and I'd applied a new coat of lip balm, he led me out of the cinema and through the streets of the town. He was looking at every restaraunt we passed, but I was looking toward the clouds. The darker ones were making their way over us now, and it really did look like it would start pouring soon enough. No one else seemed worried about it, though, because they were all walking around out of shelters.

We found a nice, sophisticated little place to eat. Quil ordered for us both, and the food came out surprisingly fast. He waited until I'd finished eating, even though I ate at least half of what he had, then he took me out to window shop.

"Wow, look at those shoes..." I said, bending over to get a closer look at the shoes in one of the windows of the shops. We'd just come out of a bookshop, and I'd added another hundred novels to my list of things to buy, so I really shouldn't have been looking at clothes.

There was a loud rumble of thunder from over our heads, and I straigtened up and looked at the sky again. A couple of other people around the street had looked warily up at the clouds, too, but they kept walking like nothing was wrong.

The thunder continued, then, when we were at a different shop, the rain started pouring down. Really heavy rain.

A couple of people screamed, a couple laughed, and a couple were silent, but ran for cover like all of the others. After a few seconds, it was only me and Quil standing in the middle of it all, getting soaked.

I scrunched my nose up and looked up at him, grinning despite how cold I was. "How romantic." I said. I was serious. It really was, and I could tell Quil knew I was being facetious in any way.

He just smiled down at me and grabbed both of my hands, pulling me closer to him. He kissed me gently, just like our first kiss. Even the rain was coming down at about the same force, so, for a moment, I felt like we were still on out secret spot at First Beach.

He pulled away and wrapped one of his arms around my waist, holding my other tightly. And started to dance with me.

I laughed with my head flung back and danced with him. There was music coming from the shops around it, but the rain drowned the noise out, so we were moving to our own rhythm.

When we'd stopped - I don't know how long we'd been dancing for, but it was long enough for a heap of people to stop and watch us, some of them smiling, others rolling their eyes, and a few shaking their heads, as if I was their daughter and they weren't looking forward to trying to dry out my boots - he kissed my forehead and walked me to the footpath.

"Are you ready to go home yet?"

"Okay," I said softly, nuzzling into his warm arm.

"Are you cold?"

"Only half of me." I said, hanging onto him.

He helped me into his truck and jumped in after me, pulling me into him once he'd started the truck up. The heater hadn't worked the whole time he'd owned it, so he wrapped one of his arms around me while he was driving and let me rest my head on his chest the whole way home.

**Hope you liked it!**

**I'll be back next Tuesday.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	60. Chapter Fifty Nine

**I'm back again!**

**I'm sick! :( I have a throat infection, and I'm not allowed to sing, and it's really boring and annoying, and I'll start singing **_**Part of Your World **_**from The Little Mermaid, and then remember that I'm not supposed to be, and UGHH! How frustrating! And speaking of singing, I'm on YouTube now...OHH! - how scary!**

**Aaaanyway, thank you to these wonderfully fantabulous people; ****HeyI'mSarah, XxsweetcakexX, twi-nighter, ObsessedWithTwilight20, MissingMommy, twilightaddict323, megg.x, BookloverLaura, laurazuleta18, guys in my head, spannieren, nwflgl, Hannah Writes R, bookworm1545, vampiremom1221, Rebecca Cashin, weesh, Amiko-san, alynawt, BlueAngel132, A., crayola music, Asha123 and Lettuce. for reviewing!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 59**

"Hey," I said, stumbling into Quil's house with my key in my mouth and my bags weighing me down by my sides. "Embry decided to stay for a while, so I'm gonna take his place here in case you get lonely. That okay?"

"Fine." Quil said, looking up from staring at the bench with a smile on his face. "I was just deciding to go and visit you."

"You took too long." I said, dumping my bags at the side of his couch and making my way over to him. I pulled a draw out from the three in his counter, climbed on top of one and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him passionately.

"I missed you." he said, running his hands down my sides.

"I had the time of my life without you." I said, smirking against his lips.

He pulled back and took his hands off me, turning away. "Maybe I'll just leave you to yourself, then." he said. I narrowed my eyes at the slight bit of humour in his voice I knew he was trying to hide.

"Come back." I said, still standing on the draw and watching him take a seat on the couch. "Quil!"

"I love this song." he said, leaning back into the cushions without turning toward me.

"My lips're lonely!" I said, my voice getting more desperate.

He looked over to me without any expression on his face. "There's some cookies in the cupboard."

I pouted as he turned away from me again and jumped off the draw, pushing it back into its place with my foot and crossing to the fridge. I found a block of chocolate in the fridge, put it on a plate and melted it in the microwave. I put a spoon in it and swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of it before smearing some on my lips.

I walked over to the couch and sat down right up against him, looking away from him.

I could practically hear him sniffing. I knew it was his favorite chocolate. I turned my head to look at him, grinning despite myself as he looked at my lips. "What?"

"You look really delicious." he said quietly.

"I am really delicious." I said, turning my head back to the television.

He sighed and took a lock of my hair. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For ignoring you."

"And..."

"And I love you."

"And...?"

"And I really want to kiss you right now." he said, looking at my lips again.

I smiled. "You're just in this relationship for the chocolate."

"You know me too well." he said, catching my lips between his.

* * *

I jerked awake, gasping, wide awake as soon as I'd opened my eyes.

I turned my head and looked over at Quil slowly, just in case I'd woken him when I'd jumped into consciousness. Or worse. In case I'd woken him on account of sleep talking or moving or something...

But no, he was still sound asleep, snoring softly as he held onto me, shaping me to his front. I swallowed and put my head back on my pillow, trying to get a hold of myself, and wondered how I was ever going to get back to sleep now.

I decided I couldn't, after a few minutes. I needed to go and get a glass of water. Spash my face with a few handfuls of it. Tell myself to wake up to myself and realize I was too young to be dreaming - and even _thinking_ - of that kind of thing.

I rolled away from him as slowly as I could, taking the arm he had wrapped around my waist gently and trying to lift it off me as I moved. I pulled my right leg out from between his and slung both of my feet over the side of his bed, searching for my slippers in the pitch blackness of his room. I finally felt them and slid my feet into them, trying my hardest to put his arm back on the space I'd just left without him noticing.

But, of course, he had to wake up.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, leaning up to grab my legs and pull me back into the pillows with him.

"I need a drink." I said, turning away again.

He caught the side of my face and pulled it back to where his voice was coming from. "What's wrong, Claire-bear? You're red as a tomato."

I bit my lip and looked toward the direction of the door again. Stupid wolf eyes... "I just woke up from a dream, and I need to go and think for a few minutes. I won't be long. I promise."

"I'll come out with you." he said, taking my hand and pulling me from the room, flicking the lights on on his way.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit!_ I tried to look like I was half-asleep, and concentrating on anything around me, but I don't think he was fooled. I went straight to the tap and got my glass from earlier that night, rinsed it once, filled it with water, and took my time finishing every last drop. Then I splashed a couple of handfuls of it on my face, drying it on the sleeve of my shirt before turning back to Quil, who was waiting for me at the counter.

"Did you want to talk about your dream?" he asked me.

"No," I said positively, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him back to his room.

He followed after a few seconds, reaching back to turn off the kitchen light, and watched me the whole time. "You shouldn't be scared of anything. I'll protect you from anything." he said softly, stopping outside his door and taking both of my hands. "Including bad dreams. I'll hold you tighter."

I shook my head. "No, I didn't have a bad dream. I'm okay."

"Then what's wrong?" he asked me, wrapping an arm around me and steering me toward his bed after turning out the light and blinding me again.

"I just had a dream, and it needed thinking about." I said shortly.

"And you don't want to talk about it?"

"No..." but I wouldn't mind acting it out for him...

"At all?" he asked, running his warm thumb over my lips.

"You don't want to hear it." I said guiltily.

That seemed to make him catch on. He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my hair softly, and pulled me as far into him as I could go. "You've only got a few more hours until you have to wake up again. Go back to sleep." he said gently.

"Okay." I murmured, snuggling closer to him in his warm arms.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

The phone's loud, annoying ring filled the garage. I jumped up from my chair in the back room, put my book face-down on the table, and ran to grab it.

"Hello?"

"How long does it take to answer a phone call there?"

"Nessie!" I squealed in delight, holding the curly phone chord tighter and taking a seat on the bench. "Are you home? How was the honeymoon?"

"We got home a few hours ago." she started off, then her voice lowered. "And it was so amazing. Best time of my life. In and out of dreams."

"Wow." I said, half-jokingly, crossing my legs on the table. "So, are you going to come down and visit us? We're workin' away, fixin' cars and stuff."

"Yeah, I think Jake wants to come down for a while soon."

"And Wifey's coming with him, of course."

"Of course." she confirmed.

We'd agreed she'd tell me everything when they'd gotten here, so I walked out into the rain to tell Quil they'd be coming.

"Nessie and Jake're back." I said, a little loudly, over the rain.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the car with him. He had something shoved into the side of the radio while he was singing to something by himself. "You'll catch a cold." he said. "And it's about time they got back. They were probably getting sick of each other or something...how long were they gone for?"

"Uhh..." I frowned as I tried to count how many days they'd been gone. "A month and...six days?"

"Look out for signs of exhaustion when they get here."

I grinned and put my feet up on the dashboard. "Wouldn't it be cheaper just to get a new car than have someone fix this up? I mean, it's not all that flashy, anyway."

"I don't know. Some people can just get attatched to things that aren't that great..."

"Like your truck?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes. "That's not an attatchment. That's a necessity. I'd be happy to swap it for something like this any day."

"I wouldn't go to that extent..." I mumbled, pulling the left side of my lip up as I kicked a cigarrette butt from where my foot was resting.

We sat in the front of the old car, talking about nothing and telling each other over and over again that we loved each other for about an hour.

"Embry doesn't even seem to eat as much these days." I said in disbelief.

"He loves Trinity too much to let her out of his sight."

"Not as much as I love you."

He sighed and shook his head in mock disapproval. "Then it must be a hell of a lot less than how much I love you."

I grinned and closed my eyes as he softly kissed the tip of my nose. Then I jumped violently as a sharp tapping noise sounded on the window of the door I was leaning against.

I turned around and gave Jake my middle finger as I reached for the handle of the door, then stepped out, into the rain to see the two of them.

"I missed you so much!" I said, letting go of Jake and taking Nessie into my arms.

She smiled widely and hugged me back, a little tighter than she usually would have, but I didn't mind all that much.

"What took you so long to get home?" I asked her, taking both of her hands and holding them tightly, the whole time not able to get the huge smile off my face.

"We were...held up." Nessie said, giving Jacob a smirk. "And not all that fond of the idea of coming back to dad."

"You could tell he wanted to skin me as soon as we'd first walked through that door." Jacob said grimly.

"Not at all." Nessie said easily. "He was too busy saying hello to me. Then he wanted to skin you."

"Oh, of course." Jake said, kicking at a tire.

"Well, I'm glad both of you are back." I said, doing my best to hug them at the same time. "And you'd better not leave me for a while. Quil's getting annoying." I grinned and looked back over at my boyfriend, blowing him a kiss. He watched my lips for a moment, then looked away uncomfortably. _Ha! Take that!_

* * *

Nessie had practically ordered me to stay the night with her. I thought she'd been kidding to start with, knowing she'd want to spend as much time with Jacob as she possibly could. They'd been waiting for a long time to knock all the boundaries down, but she had been serious when she'd asked me to stay the night with her and Alice. It was just like how it had been before they'd run off into the sunset. Just like how it had been when my crush for Quil had only been developing. Now it was so far beyond that, it was hard to keep him out of my mind...hard to act like a lady around him.

Esme had told the two newleyweds that their own personal house would be ready to move into the next day. She was just putting in the finishing touches. Nessie said she suspected her father had had something to do with Esme not finishing it so much sooner. So it was Nessie and me sitting on her bed in the mansion, waiting for Alice to get home from her quick hunt with the rest of the Cullens. The others would be staying out for the night, but Alice had been too excited to get all the gossip, so she'd begged Nessie to let her stay. Jacob had exiled himself to patrolling, and Quil had been put on tonight, as well, so I was feeling a little down myself.

"You haven't stopped grinning since you got back in La Push." I said, smiling back at her.

She sighed and fell back against her pillows. "I know. And right now I don't know whether I wanna laugh in hysterics or cry...it's the first night where we haven't been..." she sighed, then pushed herself up on one of her hands to get a better look at me. "Has anything happened between you and Quil yet?"

I shrugged. "We've had a few hot make-out sessions, but nothing major..."

"Oh," she pouted. "It looked like something huge had happened between you. You're just...so open and comfortable around each other. I thought we'd have stories to compare or something..."

"You have stories. I have ears." I said, smiling widely. "Wow...we're just like best friends in movies...please, do tell me all about your...good times."

She bit her lip, still smiling like an idiot, and lay on her stomach, as I was doing, our faces a few inches apart so she wouldn't have to talk loudly.

"It hurts, Claire." she started off. How depressing. "Like, it really, really hurts. Just warning you."

"It can't be that bad." I said, my expression worried about the grimness in her voice.

She frowned a little and put her face on my hand, watching me closely until I flinched out of her palm. "Ow!" I said helplessly, shaking my head. "Why?"

"I know..."

"I thought it was supposed to feel good!"

"It does..."

"Well, _that_ sure as hell didn't!"

"I know..."

I groaned and put my face in my hands. _That _had been bad enough. And Nessie was half vampire! What was it going to feel like coming straight from _my_ body? Not good, I was expecting.

"It's only the one time, though." she said quietly. "After that you just have to get used to it. Then it just disappears completely, and..." she sighed blissfully, laying her head into one of her pillows. "But what's going on between the two of you? I thought something definitely would've happened by now."

"Just because I don't have a scary father that keeps such a close eye on me?" I asked, smirking. "I don't know...I'm kind of...nervous about it all."

"Do you love him?"

"Of course,"

"Really, really love him?"

"I can't imagine loving anyone more than I do him." I said thoughtfully, surprising myself, not for the first time, at how much I really _did_ love him.

"Then what's the problem?" she asked.

I sighed, looking out the wall-sized window, into the blackness of the forest beyond. "I'll get there." I said quietly.

She gave me a small smile when I finally looked back at her, then jumped up and grabbed a stack of DVD cases off the small desk on the side of the room. "I collected every movie we used to watch at our sleepovers when we were little. She spread them out on the comforter and studied them with me. "Which one first?"

"_Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion,_of course." I said, picking up the DVD and tossing it into her arms.

She giggled and turned the DVD on, sitting back for the two of us to giggle and snort at the pathetic girls on the television screen.

We finally fell asleep as the sun started coming up, after watching all of our favorite sleepover movies that we both could recite the lines of, word after word. Alice had shown up halfway through the second one, but neither of us were surprised that she could remember everything down to the blinking with her second time watching it. When we heard the others get home and realized the sky was starting to lighten a little, Alice made us try to get to sleep in case the others were annoyed at her keeping us awake. They all wanted to spend the day with Nessie awake after not seeing her for so long.

I'd been asleep for what felt like three seconds, when I was lightly woken by a pair of extremely warm arms, holding me close with the owner kissing my hair.

"Go back to sleep, Beautiful." he whispered lowly. He didn't have to tell me twice.

* * *

**I learnt how to use the lines! Did you notice? I've had the three astrix things goin' on, and it was only recently that I've realised they aren't working on FanFiction, so sorry about that!**

**Oh, and before I forget; I was having SOOOO much trouble writing...a certain part of this story, and it took me a couple of months to get it out, but it's over as of luch time today, and I'm vomiting more words than ever out, so I think we might get this story finished sooner than I thought! I don't know whether to be happy or sad!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	61. Chapter Sixty

**Hey everyone! I'm late, I know. I'm sorry! But I'm posting three chapters - one for Tuesday, one to say sorry, and one because Eclipse came out, and it was AWESOME! Jacob phasing back to a human in the middle of that field; good choice, crew! :P Oh, also, three chapters because I'm not going to be here on Tuesday to update because I'm going away for a while. But I'll be back with another chapter before you know it! :)**

**Thank yous to; ****XxsweetcakexX, bookworm1545, VampireAngel91, Lettuce., BookloverLaura, crayola music, laurazuleta18, nwflgl, vampiremom1221, guys in my head, twi-nighter, Itzy, HeyI'mSarah, Asha123, meggy1508, allgirlsloveavampire, MissingMommy, inomniaperatus2, alynawt, Hannah Writes R, Limoinslowmo, mycatisblued and ILUVJACOBBLACK123 for their reviews!**

* * *

**Chapter 60**

I'd been thinking a lot about what Nessie had said at our sleepover, and it was a fortnight before I even had the guts to plan out a scene in my head. How would I start such a conversation? Would it just be on a spur of the moment? How terrible would it be if he turned me down? Would it hurt as much as it had hurt Nessie?

Embry showed up at my house almost as soon as I got home from school, took Trinity and began talking to her in the voice he kept especially for her. I watched them for a few minutes from my place on the arm chair before I made my decision and stood up. "Embry, did you wanna stay here tonight?"

"I was thinking about it..." he admitted sheepishly.

"Awesome. You can have my room if you want. I'm going to spend the night at your's."

"'Kay," he said, not seeming to think anything of my words. He was too preoccupied in keeping his eyes on my baby sister, who was drooling all over his hand.

I quickly skipped into my room and grabbed the bag I kept by my door for the days where I suddenly decided I needed to spend the night at Quil's. "Tell Mom I said I love her, and there's pasta left over from last night if she doesn't want to cook." I opened the door quickly, took one step out of it, then stopped. "I'm taking your car."

"I would say no, but it's not in the best condition since I bought it anyway, so go ahead." he said, looking back at my baby sister after throwing me his keys.

"Thanks." I ran out, into the rain with my bag slung over one shoulder, opened Embry's car door and shut it quickly behind me, breathing on my hands before digging around in my bag and pulling my mittens on. The driver's seat was still a little warm from where Embry had been sitting in it minutes before, but it wasn't comforting enough for me, so I put the heating on as high as it would go before leaving my house.

I wasn't the best driver in the world. I'd been driving since I was fourteen, but only on special occasions, and I still hadn't gotten around to driving anywhere but the deserted streets of the Reservation. It took me five minutes longer than it would have even my mother to get to Quil's place. I was too cautious behind the steering wheel, but I knew that if I'd tried to speed it up even the slightest bit, there'd be some major disasters to take care of. And that was why we kept my driving a secret...

Once I'd stopped the car, I took a few seconds to get my heart to stop beating erratically, telling myself I'd eventually get the hang of driving, then ran again to the door, grateful to get out of the rain.

He'd just gotten home from work when I'd made my own way into his house. He looked up from where he was sitting on the couch and smiled widely. "Hey, Claire-bear." he said, standing up and catching me in his arms, holding me tightly. "How'd you get here?"

"I drove..." I said, biting my bottom lip.

He set me down cautiously. "What happened this time?"

"Nothing!" I assured him quickly. "What've you been up to?"

"I just came home and kicked my shoes off." he said, tilting his head toward where his shoes were lying in the corner of the room.

"Oh..." I sucked on my bottom lip for a moment before looking down the hall. "Come here for a minute." I said, walking toward his room. I kicked the door open and waited for him to follow me in before closing it again.

"What's wrong?"

I swallowed a couple of times, looking down at my hands to think of what I should say next. Whatever happened to figuring out conversations on the rides over? I'm sure I could've thought of several in the time it had taken _me_ to get over here...

"Umm...remember the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago?"

"We've had a thousand conversations in the last couple of weeks, Claire-bear."

"Um...the one about us?"

It took him a couple of seconds. "Oh."

"I would really like to...discuss that further."

"Claire, can't we just go along with what-"

"No, I'm sick of hearing all about everyone else, including Nessie now, talk about how great everything _they_ do in relationships is, and the best _I _can compare with them is how great our make-out sessions are after closing time in the garage!" I said, getting upset that he never listened to me about these things. Weren't guys the ones that were supposed to want this kind of thing?

"You're too-"

"Young?" I finished for him. "Quil, I'm sixteen. You were sixteen when you phased. We-are-the-same-age!" I said, hitting him lightly with my hands with each syllable I said to get my point across quicker.

He stared silently at the floor until I was silent and took a step back, sitting on the foot of his bed. He stood in front of me, still not looking toward me, and sighed.

"Just...please don't tell me I'm too immature or anything, because I can't count all the times where you've said how much more mature I am than Kelsi or Sally, and they're both over a year older than me."

"Claire, you are." he said, looking up slowly.

"I'm not!" I said, standing up unsteadily, still on the foot of his bed. "Quil, there's not way you're ever going to get rid of me, so why not do other things than kiss?" I was angry by now. "You obviously don't want me as anything other than what we already are anyway!" I spat.

He shook his head, and before I knew it, his hands had shot out from by his sides and pushed me, making me fall down on his bed with a gust of air blown out from my lungs. "Don't you ever give me that shit again." he warned me. "You know it's not true."

Then, as soon as his hands had moved seconds before, he was over me, kissing my neck and making me fall back into his pillows.

My eyes closed and my breathing got heavier as I worked out what was happening, what was going to happen in a few short moments. Quil's kissing was quick and messy, and I enjoyed it. He always took his time and tried to be gentle with me, but his warm, calloused hands were gripping me tightly now and moving me underneath him so I was in his preferred place.

"This was your idea," he said, sitting up and grabbing my jacket. "At least make some effort." I let him pull it off my arms and chuck it onto the floor, then pulled him back toward me.

"You're the one who's always wearing a shirt for no good reason." I said, pulling the hem of it up and kicking him back with one of my feet to get him up again. He huffed impatiently and flung it over his shoulder, hitting the curtains of his room in the process.

Three minutes later found me buried deep in his pillows in only my skirt and bra and him over me, still in his jeans. But that was it. I was wishing, again, that he chose to wear exactly that everywhere, but I couldn't get my way with everything, I supposed.

I flinched as his hand travelled up my leg and under my skirt, and he pulled away. "Sorry,"

I shook my head and beckoned him forward again, gripping his hair as tightly as I could so he couldn't get away again and kissing him just as hard as I had been before.

But even I let go when the door flung open. He sprung from over me, to the end of his bed, where he stayed in a crouched position, as if he were about to pounce.

"Hey, Quil, do you know where my-oh my God!" Embry jumped back from the door and stood so I couldn't see him, around the wall. "Sorry!" he called around the corner.

I looked down at the cushion, blushing so badly I wanted to cry.

Quil cleared his throat and gave me a long, silent look before jumping off his bed and going to see what Embry wanted.

I sighed hopelessly and hung off the side of the bed to get my shirt, pulling it on as quickly as I could. Embry had totally ruined the moment, and I didn't want to start things up again like they had been when Quil came back. The embarrassment would be even worse when he finally did come back. I listened to him tell Embry he'd given the shirt Embry had been looking for to Emily to wash, then heard Embry go into the room I had inhabited for a while in the past. After a few more minutes, the door to the apartment closed, and Quil came slowly back into his room.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." I said softly. "And I'm glad Embry interrupted us. I didn't want anything so special to happen that way."

He smiled sadly and took the spot on his bed next to me, wrapping his arms around me slowly, holding me to him in a grasp that I would never be able to escape, no matter how much I tried. But, at that moment, there wasn't even the slightest bit of me that wanted to.

"It'll happen, Claire-bear." he said in my ear, snuggling into the pillow beside me and kissing the corner of my eye. "Really, really soon. I promise."

"I love you, Quil." I said, taking his hand in both of mine and sliding back a bit so I was right up against him.

His free hand slid over my lower stomach, making the muscles there flinch of their own accord. "I love you more than you could ever imagine, Claire."

* * *

I woke in the morning, not surprisingly, with my legs wound between Quil's and his hand holding my waist under my shirt. I took my hand that had been resting on his bare chest and pushed myself up, blinking a couple of times to clear the fog from my eyes.

He sighed in his sleep and rolled over, pulling me with him, so I was on top of his warm form. His arms wrapped around me tightly, and I frowned in suspiscion.

"Quil?"

"It's Saturday." he replied immediately, not opening his eyes.

"You know, it's not really proving your point when you're _pretending _to be asleep." I giggled, kissing his face all over.

He grinned and kissed me quickly as I got to his mouth, then finally opened his mouth to speak. "Let's spend every minute of the day in here today."

"That does sound tempting..." I admitted, watching our hands as he put me back in my place and intertwined our fingers. "But what're we going to do the whole time?"

"This." he murmured, kissing the back of my neck.

I smiled peacefully and closed my eyes, allowing myself to fall back to sleep in his arms.

When I woke again, the television from the living room had been pushed in so it was facing us, and there was a box of cereal and a bowl beside me. Quil was eating next to me, so I sat up and joined him.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty."

"Good morning," I yawned widely, pouring myself some cereal. "I thought you just wanted to do nothing all day? You brought the television in."

"For you." he told me. "The only thing I want to watch is you. You get bored with me, though."

"I don't know how I could ever get bored with watching you." I said honestly, staring at his toned stomach. "But thank you."

He grinned and flexed his abs, so they were even more appealing, and I rolled my eyes. "You're making this very hard for me." I said, looking away from him.

"Trust me," he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. "You do the same to me."

I snorted in disgust and chucked a pillow at him. "Who's the immature one out of the two of us?"

He laughed loudly and, forgetting about his cereal that he'd placed on the bench beside him, reached forward and grabbed me quickly, pulling me into him and making it very hard for me to keep all of my breakfast in its bowl. "I missed you." he said, kissing my hair.

"Then don't let me go again." I told him quietly.

He tightened his arms around me and took a deep breath before lifting his head from my hair. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't." he took the bowl off me and put it with his, then we sat for about twenty minutes without saying anything. I just dozed in my daydreams idly while his fingertips traced patterns over my face and down my neck.

"You're so perfect." he said after half an hour, kissing the side of my left eye. I looked up at him in disbelief. "What?"

"Have _you _ever looked in a mirror?" I inquired of him.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm hardly anything perfect." he said softly.

"You're almost beyond it." I sighed.

He shook his head and held me back from him a few more inches. "No, definitely not. All I am is some natural change that my body's gone under. I had no choice. It's not who I am. It's _what _I am. And I'd hate to think of how you'd take me if I were just...human."

"I love you." I told him. "If you were human, I can't see myself walking past you without double-taking. I'm supposed to love you."

"And what if I were human?" he asked me, his face falling. "I'd be fourteen years older than you. Everyone would think it were disgusting. Thirty years old?"

"You're not thirty years old." I said, my finger tracing over his chest.

"But I am." he said grimly. "Or...I would be."

"And you still protest against things a man of your age should be begging for." I joked.

He gave me a half-smile, then sighed, knocking my hand away from his skin.

"Why would you do that?" I asked him, a little hurt by his simple action. "Quil, I really don't see you as a thirty-year-old man! You're sixteen! You have been for fourteen years!" I said, taking his hand and holding it to me.

He stared at the corner of the room for a few seconds, looking like he was concentrating on something very hard, then looked back at me. "I'm going to have to _be_ human really, really soon."

"No," I moaned, putting my face in his chest. "I was thinking about that, too." I said softly. "But I don't want you to give it all up."

"I'll be giving you up if I don't." he said, his thumb rubbing lovingly over the side of my face.

I shook my head. "I know how much you love being a wolf, Quil. I don't want you to stop for anything. And if I were the reason, I wouldn't be able to live with seeing you so upset everyday."

"I wouldn't be able to live with letting you go. I wouldn't be able to phase." he told me. "I would rather have given it up years ago than give you up in the ten years it would take. Or less."

"We'll work it out." I said, kissing his shoulder. "We have so much more to work out in that time than _your_ life choices."

"Your's are mine from now on." he reminded me. "And which ones in particular are you talking about?"

I grinned and looked away from his face, my eyes locking on his right biscep. "I don't know...what've you been considering?" all of a sudden I'd gotten nervous about it all. I hadn't been thinking seconds before, but now that the things had started to blurt out of my mouth, the things that I'd thought of and day dreamed about for so long, I'd had to stop myself.

"We're going to move in together. Officially." he said, kissing my forehead. "And we're going to get married. And we're going to have children."

"You want to have kids?" I asked him, smiling slightly. I'd thought about how they'd turn out - which qualities of Quil they'd have, and which qualities of mine, but I'd never expected Quil to talk about them, so it surprised me when he came out with it.

He nodded. "Not for a while. Years. We have to find our house first." he murmured, adjusting me in his arms.

"And ew," I said jokingly. "Who said I wanted to get married to you?"

He rolled his eyes and put his head back down on his pillows. "I love you."

"How much?" I asked him, pushing myself up on his chest to get a better look at him.

"Did you want to leave the room this lifetime?" he questioned.

"Yeah...?" I asked him. Not because I truly wanted to (trust me, I didn't), but because I wanted to hear his answer.

"Then I can't answer that question. It'd take too long." he said, pulling me over so I was straight beside him again. He put his head on my shoulder and kissed my neck. "I can't even start to compare it."

I turned my head so our faces were together and kissed him softly. "I'd bet I could compare it." I said softly.


	62. Chapter Sixty One

**A QUESTION FOR MY AMERICAN READERS (or anyone else who knows)((it's crucial for the story)); What month or approximate date do you guys graduate or finish a year from High School? To anyone who answers, thanks. :)**

* * *

**Chapter 61**

Alice had gone overboard, even for herself, on Halloween. Nessie and I had offered to help, and I was soon regretting it. She had us on small ladders and chairs all over the mansion, hanging up bits and pieces of everything she could think of (which happened to be just about everything made for the occasion).

I grabbed another bunch of orange and purple streamers and stood up on my chair to hang them from the curtains, careful not to spill any from my arms. I felt a pair of hands on my sides for a moment, then the streamers were gone.

"I'll do this stuff." Quil said, kissing me quickly as I jumped off the chair. "Go and help Edward and Bella with the food."

"I thought you were on patrol for another hour?" I asked, locking my arms around him before I left.

He shrugged. "It's a holiday. I deserve a bit of time off."

I smiled and turned, making my way over to Bella and Edward, who were obviously having troubles.

"Claire, have you seen Jake? We need a taste tester." Bella asked, pouring some kind of soda into a huge bowl.

I shook my head. "No, Nessie was helping me, but I haven't seen either of them since Jacob got back." I told them.

Edward's mouth twitched into an unpleasant grimmace, but he beckoned me forward with his finger. "At least you won't try to eat it all before the party starts."

"It needs more flavor." I said absently as Quil and Jasper burst into laughter at the sight of Emmett coming through the doors, dressed as the stereotypical Dracula.

Alice hadn't invited anyone human except Imprints, so everyone would know about everything and we wouldn't have to be careful as we usually were talking about things. That was why everyone was surprised when Sam showed up with Payton.

"You're an hour early," I said, walking forward and hugging both of them. As I let go of Payton I whispered in his ear, "What's Sam doing here?"

"We thought we'd help out before the party. Plus, Sam's flight was a little late, so we couldn't catch the movie we were going to." he said, pretty much ignoring my question completely and wrapping his arms around her.

She grinned. "Thank God for the heating in here. I thought I'd have to skip my costume and wear my sweats all night."

"Yeah, the temperature here's a bitch," Emmett murmured, switching on the television.

"Isn't he dressed up a little early?" Sam asked.

"Oh, he's not dressed up." Payton grinned. I gave him a look, telling him to keep his mouth closed. I knew Sam would have taken it in a joking matter, but we still liked to keep even the slightest things to ourselves.

Once other people had started arriving and Alice bravely dared to walk into the room Nessie and Jacob had inhabited and instructed the least dressed of the two to get dressed in her costume. Then I'd giggled behind her as she made a remark on how it wouldn't be very hard, seeing as she was practically in her underwear as it was.

Jacob left the room resentfully and Alice chucked the bag with the costumes she'd purchased for us a while back on the bed in the corner of the room.

Nessie grinned almost drunkenly at me as she slid off her skirt. "How's Quil goin'?"

I snorted and shook my head. "You're crazy. And alright, I guess."

"I'm still waiting on the gossip." she said, pulling out both of the costumes in the bag and flinging the white one at me. "I thought you were going to tell me everything as soon as it'd happened."

"It hasn't happened yet." I said, annoyed as I did my best to work out how the dress went.

She sighed and stopped dressing to face me with a disbelieving face. "Are you serious? Didn't you try something?"

"Of course I did, Nessie. And why are you trying to pressure me into sex?"

"I'm not," she said, grinning. "I just thought...what's holding you back? And it's obvious you want to go there, too."

"Yes!" I groaned, stamping my feet. "But he won't take it! I mean, he was going to, and we were almost there, but then Embry walked in on us, and we both snapped out of it...I think it's best to wait a little while longer."

"Oh, unlucky," she said sadly, then held up her finger for a moment. I stopped, knowing she was warning me that Quil was maybe listening. "Well, don't wait for too long." she said after a few seconds. "Because, knowing you, you'll combust."

I laughed quietly and let her help me get my costume sorted.

After Alice had fixed up our make-up (with glitter and all), we descended the stairs in fairy costumes my mother was sure to double-take at. Edward didn't seem too struck on them, either, but he didn't say anything, and within ten minutes got over the way his daughter's skirt hardly covered her when she walked.

Quil was on the other side of the room, talking to Sam and Jared, so I was left to talk to the other Sam and Payton while we snuck glances at each other through the group of people that kept getting bigger and bigger.

"Oh, Oliver's here." Payton said after almost ten minutes. "With frigging Lisa," he paused for a moment, then shrugged and left the two of us with a final kiss for Sam's hair.

Sam turned to me with a massive grin on her face after she'd watched him for a few more seconds. "He's just the sweetest thing in the world!" she said, bouncing on her feet for a while. "And I know I always bad-mouthed Ana about never leaving the bedroom when Alex was around, but I can totally see her point!"

"You...you've _been _with Payton?" I asked her, feeling a little more depressed.

She nodded. "Of course! We see each other all the time." she took my facial expression the wrong way, and felt as though she needed to explain hersef. "Don't worry, Claire. I'm not about to dump him. I really like him." she smiled to where he was laughing with Oliver and Lisa, then looked back at me after he caught her eye. "And my parents like him, too. Except Peggie keeps calling him Jacob." she laughed quietly, then left me without another word to speak to her boyfriend and the newcomers.

I barely had time to pour myself another glass of the fruity punch Edward and Bella had mixed up earlier before Quil's warm arms wrapped around me and pulled me away from the table.

"What're we doing?" I asked him, grinning.

"Dancing." he took the cup I was holding, drank the rest of it, and threw it so it landed on its side on the nearest table.

We kind of just moved lamely around every one else who had decided to stop talking and dance, while we laughed at Nessie and Jacob grinding. We were all called off the dancefloor for a few horror movies in the Cullen's living room, which could just about be called a small cinema anyway.

"You gonna get scared?" Quil asked, pulling me down on the couch beside him.

"You gonna hold me if I do?"

"I'll hold you anyway." he said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me over so I was lying on his chest.

Everyone was seated on the huge couch and many chairs that Esme and Rosalie had set up before, and Emmett started the movie, then turned all of the lights off. I knew it wouldn't have made a difference to most of the people in the room, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.

I remember laughing with the others at the orange blood on the screen, then thinking about how warm Quil's arms were...

* * *

"Claire," a pair of hands shook me awake, and I sniffed and sat up slowly.

"What?" I asked grumpily. Nessie laughed.

"You've been asleep for four hours. I think Quil's ready to go home." she said, turning to where Quil and Jacob were cleaning up the leftover food.

"Oh," I yawned and pushed myself off the couch. "I missed the party."

"We didn't really do much after you fell asleep." she told me. "Just watched another movie, then talked for a while. Sam and Payton are really getting somewhere."

"Trust me, I know." I said glumly, watching Quil. "Seems like I'm the only one who's not."

"Ah, that's not true." she shook her head and pushed me toward the guys. "You're a heap closer to Quil than Sam is to Payton. I think he just felt like he needed to give her a little more to make her fall in love with him. Meeting someone at that age isn't just about the personalities."

I rolled my eyes and walked to where Quil and Jacob were. I was in that really bad mood...the one where you wake up after sleeping for a while, and everything just pisses you off to no end? Yeah...everyone loved that Claire...

"Morning, Gorgeous." Quil said, putting his arm around me. I took the cup of water out of his hand and finished it off, filling it up as soon as I had.

"Well, it's not my fault if she doesn't want to pay for the whole thing. She's gonna have to leave her car with me if she doesn't, though. Just because Dowling's is almost twice as expensive, doesn't mean we give out free paint jobs." Jacob said through a mouthful off food.

"I'm not even going to try to reason with her again." Quil said, shaking his head. "She just goes in there to hit on all of the guys, I'm sure of it."

"Who?" I asked at once.

Quil looked down at me and brushed my cheek with his thumb. "Just a girl that wanted some work done on her car, Claire-bear. No one worth talking about."

_"You're_ talking about her." I said quietly.

"Well, we'll stop now." Jake said, not needing Jasper's aid to sense my mood.

I sighed and poured another glass of water. "Thirsty?" Quil asked me.

I nodded, then set the cup on the table. "Are we staying here tonight?"

"You mean for the couple of hours it'll take for the sun to come up? No, my nose is starting to make my eyes water. More than usual, I mean. I was going to leave when you woke up."

"Well, I'm up." I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the door. "Thanks for the party, Alice! I would offer to help clean up, but I know you wouldn't let me..."

"There's only so much I can do around here that keeps me busy." she said, smiling and waving. I hugged Nessie at the door and waved a goodbye to the rest of them, then jumped in Quil's truck.

"The door's stuck!" I said, doing my best to close it for the fourth time.

"Pull your legs in. Make sure you're outta the way." he said, watching me closely, as if I were in danger of dying.

I made sure I was well out of the door's way, then he slammed it shut as hard as he could, sending a small crack up the window in the process. I bit my lip and waited for him to get to his own door before I said anything.

"This poor old truck..."

"I don't know how I'm going to replace it...now that Embry's back all my money goes to food and television."

"Hey, he spends equal time at my house, too." I said, waving to Nessie and Jake on the porch as we drove out of their sight. My face was also turned from Quil to hide the sly smile that had come about my face from talking about replacing his truck...


	63. Chapter Sixty Two

**Chapter 62**

I woke up in my own bed for a change, shiverring violently and pulling the comforter and four blankets around me closer. I breathed into my hands for a few minutes before deciding I should probably get up and wish my mother a happy Christmas.

It took me about five minutes to get my blankets wrapped around me well enough that I could pick an outfit out, then another five minutes deciding on stockings, boots and a long-sleeved top with a skirt that finished a couple of inches above my knees and my favorite trench coat.

When I'd finished dressing, and was trying to gain a control over my teeth, I walked into the bathroom and turned the hot tap on at the sink, leaving it running to warm up while I tied my hair up.

I washed my face, taking a lot of time. The hot water burned my skin, but it felt really nice at the same time. It was just horrible when I had to wipe it off as quickly as I could because it had gotten cold so quickly. I brushed my teeth, then took my hair out, brushing it a couple of times while I decided what to do with it for the day.

I finally decided on curling it, looking forward to handling the hot rollers. Quil had seemed to like it curled at Nessie and Jake's wedding, and we were going to a Christmas party, so it wouldn't be odd if I dressed myself up nicely. I spent a quarter of an hour putting them in my hair, then pinned them all in with bobby pins, just in case they decided to come loose while I was doing my makeup and making tea for myself and my mother.

"Happy Christmas, Mom." I said as she shuffled into the kitchen in her dressing gown and fluffy slippers. She kissed me lightly, then smiled as I gave her her present.

"Aw, thanks, Baby." she opened it and gasped. _"Rainbow Valley?"_

"I went to an antique bookstore in Port Angeles and found the same edition you were talking about...the one you had when you were a kid." I explained, carrying the two coffee cups to the table and setting hers in front of her.

She thanked me about a million times, then gave me my present. It was a light blue dress with long sleeves that was hemmed to fall just below my knees. I immediately ran into my room and changed into it, giving my mother a tight hug as I did.

Embry came around first, which left me in a mild state of depression. Quil had had to patrol last night, so he hadn't been able to stay with me, and he'd probably have to sleep for a few more hours. I was worried about missing the start of the party, but I was more anxious to see him than anything.

"Merry Christmas," Embry said, hugging and kissing both of our cheeks. He gave me a CD from one of his and my favorite bands, and my mother a black and silver photo frame. Then he went in and sat next to Trinity's bed and waited for her to wake up.

My mother stared after him with a frown on her face when he'd left, then turned to me slowly. "Just a wild guess, but I'd say Quil's coming to visit you today?"

"Yeah," I took a long sip of my tea, then answered the rest of her question. "He was out at a work Christmas party last night, so he'll still be a little while."

"I thought Jacob was the owner of the store?" she asked me, narrowing her eyes. "Isn't he hosting the Christmas party today?"

"Yeah, but last night's was only for the staff." I said, trying to think as quickly as I could. "Nessie's more organising the one today."

"Oh," she dismissed it, despite my lame excuse. I was mistaken when I thought it was the end of our conversation. Unfortunately, she had a few more questions for me about my boyfriend. "How are you and Quil going?"

"Good." I said, nodding a few times while avoiding eye contact with her.

"No fights?" she asked, sipping her tea.

"Just a couple." I admitted. "But none of them have been serious, and we're over them as soon as we start them. They're all just about nothing, anyway." It was the complete truth. We fought, like any other couple in the history of forever, but it was never anything so serious that we'd go for longer than half an hour before cracking and having to apoligise over and over again, not to mention a really, really great make-out session to say another hundred sorries, which I had nothing against.

"Have you done anything with him?" she asked after half a minute, slipping into Serious Mom Mode.

"No, Mom!" I said, laughing a little. I wondered if I was being convincing, then stopped giving her my goofy smile and tried to look serious back at her. "Promise. I mean, we kiss. A fair bit. But that's all."

"Okay. Just checking." she said, finishing her tea and standing up to put her cup in the sink. "I just like making sure you're being good and sensible about the whole relationship thing."

"I promise." I said, staring at my fingers until she left the kitchen to get dressed.

I watched the clock for the next half an hour, then heard the loud sound of a car door slamming outside and ran to the window, smiling widely as Quil waved to me.

I waited for him at the door and opened it just as he reached it, so I wouldn't be able to get the hit of the freezing air outside until the nessacary moment. I hardly noticed it, though, because his warm arms caught me and pushed me inside with him, closing the door as quickly as possible.

We stood there for a few minutes, holding each other tightly. It was one of the longest times I'd spent away from him in the last few months, and I took comfort in being in his arms and just breathing him in.

He finally let go of me, only to kiss me softly for a few seconds, then stood up to his usual height and took both of my hands. "I missed you so much."

"Same." I said quietly, wrapping my arm around his waist and taking him into the kitchen.

I took the curlers out at the table and did a fair job at laquering them with hairspray, fixing them in the bathroom mirror before meeting Embry, my mother and Quil in the kitchen again.

Quil stood up as I neared the table and wrapped his arms around me again, pulling me down to sit with him with his lips in my hair. "You look gorgeous." he said, pulling back to look me over. "Did you get that dress for Christmas?"

I nodded. "Off Mom."

"She didn't get me anything..." Embry sulked playfully on the other side of the table.

"Oh," she stood from the table immediately and walked to the fridge. "I did, actually."

She pulled out two cakes, each with small ribbons on the top of the plastic they were wrapped in and sat one in front of each of the two boys at the table. "Merry Christmas."

"Aw, thanks, Mar," Quil said, giving her a one-armed hug while still keeping a tight hold on me.

"My pleasure." my mother took her seat again, and the three of us were silent, until Trinity's cry sounded from her room.

"Yes!" Embry said happily, running toward her room, a little quicker than he normally would around humans.

"If I didn't know the two of you, I'd be seriously scared." my mother said to Quil without looking away from where Embry had run.

* * *

The three of us walked up to Jacob's house quickly, then waited by the front door and listened to the loud noises we could hear that were coming through the wall.

"Jake, stop it! Jake...they're here!"

"They can wait."

"Ugh...get off. Thank you." Nessie pushed the door open and gave the three of us a wide smile before leading us from whatever we were going to bring up. "Where's Trinity?"

"It's her first Christmas, and her mother wanted some time with her..." Embry said grudgingly. "So, I'm here to be a good friend, and then Marylyn's going to bring her over for lunch."

"She's only coming for the food." Jacob said, grinning as he caught up with Nessie and opened the door wider for us, as if she were unable to do it herself.

"I just started making the pies for after, so you can wait in the living room. You're the first ones here."

We followed her request, and Embry took the couch immediately, leaving Quil to sit on the floor against it. I sat next to him, and the three of us concentrated on an infomercial that was promoting a sponge, that 'couldn't be used just once or twice, but for ten years straight! blah, blah, blah...'

Before the ad was finished, Paul and Rachel, Sam, Emily, Hannah and Toby, Jared and Kim and Dyllan and Carter had joined the group, and Nessie had started setting food out on the table. Dyllan had finally gotten around to telling Carter about the whole wolf thing (before Christmas, as promised), and it had seemed to make Carter even more in love with him. He was clinging onto Dyllan's arm the whole time we were there, and we could all tell Dyllan was loving it.

"How's your Quil going?" Carter asked me as he stabbed pasta onto his fork.

I smiled in the direction of Quil, who looked over at me as soon as my eyes hit him and smiled back. "Good."

He grinned and turned to the side to face me better. "Wanna give me some details?"

Dyllan sat in the chair next to him and grabbed the hand Carter wasn't using to hold his plate. "What're we talking about?"

"Claire's just about to give us details about her and Quil." Carter said excitedly.

"Oh, go ahead." Dyllan said eagerly.

I bit my lip, wondering how I was ever going to stall something from the two most persistant boys in the world, and sighed in relief when Quil snuck up without us noticing and pulled me out of my chair.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly, sitting in my seat and pulling me down to sit in his lap.

"Claire's just about to give us full details of your...time together." Carter said, giving me a sly smile as he finished his sentence.

"You can stop holding your breaths." I started, a little sadly. "We've gone just about as far together as Embry and Trinity have..."

Their smiles faded, then they both turned to Quil with looks of disappointment. "What's holding you back?" Carter started.

"I thought _something_ would've happened by now...especially with all that imagining you were doing last time I had patrol with you..."

"Seriously, Quil. I'm sure any other guy in the world would be up for it before she could ask. I know _I _would-"

"Let's go see Embry." Quil said, lifting the two of us and placing me on my feet next to him. "He looks lonely."

I looked over my shoulder and gave Carter and Dyllan a smile to say my thanks. Carter winked at me while Dyllan started a quiet conversation with him.

"Hey, guys." Embry greeted us dully.

"Hey, Em." I took a lettuce leaf off his plate and nibbled on it slowly, looking around the room. "What time did Mom say she'd be bringing Trinity over?"

"They were supposed to be here..." he checked the little clock on the opposite wall, then looked toward the door. "But it doesn't look like it just yet."

"They'll be here soon." Quil assured him, helping himself to another plateful of food.

We started a short conversation with Embry, that was interrupted almost immediately by my mother knocking on the door to get out of the freezing wind.

"Dee!" Embry all but gasped, moving forward immediately to get them inside. He took my baby sister from my mother's arms and held her as he shut the door quietly behind him. My mother walked to the food table with a quil greeting to Jacob and Nessie.

"See?" I said to Quil quietly, once I was sure no one was paying any attention to us. "Even Carter and Dyllan think your views are stupid."

"You're right." he said, and I looked up, shocked, to see him smirking. "Let's lock ourselves in Billy's closet and go for it."

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him, my plan to hurt him by ignoring him until I needed to talk to him again. Unfortunately, my plan didn't get a chance to work, because that's when Alice decided to walk through the door. She gave a small nod to me, then walked off, as if she hadn't seen me.

"Why's Alice here?" Quil asked, not having noticed her gesture to me moments before.

I shrugged. "Maybe she had to tell Nessie something." I turned back to the table and poured myself a glass of water, watching the door Alice disappeared through.

He let it go, and I'm guessing Alice jumped out Jacob's kitchen window, because she didn't come back. Twenty minutes later, and Nessie was announcing Present Time.

We'd decided to go with Secret Santa this year, after deciding what we were getting for Quil, so everyone was a little relieved. Usually no one could afford to get people good presents with having to buy so many people something.

"Who's first?" Hannah asked excitedly, clinging onto her present, that was very clearly marked KIM for everyone to see.

"I think Quil should go first." I yelled out, with another nod, this time from Jacob.

"Let the kids go first, Claire." Quil said reasonably, watching Mathew try to claw his was off Jared's lap toward the present that was outstretched toward him from Paul teasingly.

"No, you have to!" Nessie said, running forward and taking his hand. "Outside, everyone!"

"What?" Quil asked, frowning a little. "Where're we going?"

"Just out the front." I assured him, clinging on his arm and pulling him with the rest of us.

I smiled widely as soon as I saw it, on the side of the driveway out the front of Jacob's house. The truck was white and shiny, made even more so by the soft rain that was falling at that moment. Nessie tilted her head to one side at the front of the group as everyone stared at it, most in shock. "I thought Alice would have at least put a bow on it or something...oh well. Merry Christmas, Quil!"

He frowned at the truck, then looked around, as if expecting something else, or someone to jump out and claim it a joke. No such thing came, however, so I giggled and squeezed his hand.

"What did you do?" he asked, glancing from me to Jacob to Nessie.

Nessie shook her head. "We just put a little money in for it. It was all Claire."

He smiled widely and looked down at me. "I think you went a little overboard."

"Not for how long you've needed to get rid of the old thing you used to drive. I've had it planned for months. And everyone helped out. That's why the whole Secret Santa thing went into action."

He shook his head and put his face in his hands for a few seconds, then pulled them off and lifted me up, spinning me around a couple of times. "You shouldn't have done this." he said, hugging anyone he could get his hands on. "I'm paying everyone back for it."

"Alice won't have that." Nessie said, matter-of-factly.

"I'm ringing her." Quil said, letting go of my hand and walking out, into the rain with his phone.

* * *

**QPOV**

"Thanks, Em." I said, taking the keys he was handing me. He nodded without taking his eyes away from Trinity, who was laughing at him in his arms.

I turned around to help Claire out of the new white truck and placed her gently on the ground, careful not to hurt her feet on the pavement. "It's kind of sad..." she said thoughtfully, looking at my old truck as Embry walked away from it. "It's been like a friend." she snorted.

I nodded and picked her up again, holding her on my back. "Oh well. I'm sure we'll remember it."

She laughed and hugged my neck, resting her head on my shoulder. "I love you." she said softly.

I sighed and took her feet in my hands. "Love you, too, Claire-bear."

* * *

**Hope everyone enjoyed! I'll update as soon as I get back from my little trip! :D**

**Chlowie, xo**


	64. Chapter Sixty Three

**Hi, everyone! I'm back from holidays! It was fun, though we went there for the cold weather, and it wasn't even cold. Oh well. It was...eventful. We got a flat tire on a three hour track up a mountain and thought we were going to have to spend the night there and die, but then, after almost two long hours, a guy helped us out. Yay! We accidently burnt a hole in a bench in the cottage we were staying in, and the forest and creek just outside where we were living for the week looked exactly like the place where Briar Rose (or Aurora...whatever) and Phillip met for the first time since she was a baby...so romantic, hehe! And I'm sooo tired, because I hardly got any sleep, then went to DISNEY ON ICE! WHOOP, WHOOP! So worth it, though. Just like every year. :P**

**Thanks to; ****bookworm1545, HeyI'mSarah, ObsessedWithTwilight20, weesh, nwflgl, Beachbunny24, LockDown, MargoPix, MissingMommy, megg.x, meggy1508, BookloverLaura, spannieren, Limoinslowmo, vampiremom1221, allgirlsloveavampire, Paris Lautner, laurazuleta18, twi-nighter, Shouldna, xXGh0stXx, XxsweetcakexX, alynawt and SwiftDestiny for reviewing!**

**Hope you like this chapter. :)**

* * *

**Chapter 63**

**CPOV**

"Are you hungry?"

"No,"

We were having another lazy day. The curtains on the big window at the wall Quil's bed was facing were open, and even the fat rain drops were on our side hitting them lazily, idly running down to the sill and giving me even more of a cozy feeling as I lay in numerous blankets and Quil's arms.

"I am." he said after a few seconds. "But I'm not getting up."

"We'll get up together." I assured him, not making any attempt to get up.

He watched me for another moment, "When?"

"I don't know..."

He chuckled and pulled me so I rolled over to face him. "You look pretty scrumptious..."

I smiled and moved to his pillow, resting my nose against his and looking into his big, brown eyes. "You'd miss me too much if you ate me."

"I don't know..." he kissed me softly, leaving his lips on mine when he'd finished. I smirked and closed my eyes, my hands knotting in the shirt that was keeping me away from the warm skin of his chest. I frowned after a minute and opened my eyes again to give him a glum look. "Why's that there?"

"What?"

"Your shirt." I said shortly, pulling at it.

He grinned. "Yours is."

I raised an eyebrow at him, surprised. "Well, if that's how you feel about it..." I was positive he heard the acceleration of my heart as I sat up, out of his arms and pulled my sweater over my head, chucking it to the floor by his bedroom door. I got back into my place with a satifsied smile on my face and looked at him expectantly, silently praising myself to wear my favorite bra today.

He huffed and sat up, ripping his shirt off and throwing it with mine. He gave me a look of disapproval, but I could tell he was just putting it on, then grabbed me and pulled me onto him, holding me to him tighter than any hug. "You might get cold." he explained, grinning at me as his hands tickled my lower back.

I giggled and nestled into his collarbone, kissing the bottom of his neck and closing my eyes again. "Well, then, you'd better not let me go."

"I wasn't planning on it."

**QPOV**

We had a half an hour break of talking where she just let me hold her. The rain on my window gave us all the music we needed, and her quiet breathing filled in for the voice that didn't need any romantic lyrics to complete the best song in the world...

Then she broke it, taking me out of my conscious dreaming.

"So," she pulled her head up and rested her chin on my chest, giving me a mischevious smirk as she prepared for her question. "What were those thoughts Dyllan was talking about yesterday?"

_Damn it, Dyllan!_ "What thoughts?"

"Don't play dumb with me." she said, flicking my nose. "You know what I'm talking about."

I shook my head and looked at the ceiling, doing my best to ignore her - an impossible thing I'd never been able to achieve.

She adjusted herself on top of me, more than she'd really ever need to, and her smile got wider. "Aww, Quil," she said, picking up on my jaw locking, the heavy blinking of my eyes, and the slight flare of my nostrils at her movements. "You _do_ know what I'm talking about."

I shook my head, closing my eyes and turning my head to the left, toward my door, so she wouldn't be able to pick up on any more of my facial expressions as easy. "I have no idea." Wasn't it bad enough that she was ontop of me without her shirt on? Her cold skin against my stomach and chest gave my mind more than enough to work with without her moving around to help it. Not to mention her bringing up the subject and letting the worst of my thoughts enter my mind...

She obviously didn't think I was that creative within my mind...

"Does this give hints?" she asked, readjusting herself again and running her hand down my stomach.

"That's enough," I said, rolling over so she fell off me and onto her side of my matress again.

"Why?" she asked, her face falling as she moved closer to me. I put my hand on her shoulder, reminding myself not to touch the front of her while she was like this and closed my eyes.

"Just...stay over there for a minute, okay?"

When I'd opened my eyes again, she was trying to keep the smile off her face. "All better now?"

I gave her a grim look and shook my head a little. "Why do you do this to me?"

"Because you need it." she said, studying her nails. "And I need it. I'm very mature, you know."

"Not when you're acting like this."

"You love it." she sneered, her hand finding the top of my pajama pants. I batted it away and grabbed it and the other, pulling her over with them and wrapping them around my neck.

"Isn't this okay for today?"

"Today?" she repeated, wriggling toward me on the matress. "What about tomorrow?"

"We'll see what happens. Who knows?" I grinned, moving my head down and kissing her neck. I bit it as hard as I could without hurting her, and pulled back. She was biting her lip with her eyes wide open, looking at me intently. I smiled at her once, then closed my eyes, resting on my pillow and trying really hard to keep a straight face. "I'm tired."

"What was that?" she asked quietly.

"What?" I asked lazily, not bothering to open my eyes.

She sighed dramatically. "Why would you do that to me?"

_Trust me - I think I just did a lot more damage to myself... _"I'm sorry."

"Shut up." she said desperately. I felt the matress move as she pushed herself up on her hands and move forward so she was hovering just above me. I concentrated as hard as I could on keeping my face plain, but she was making it more and more difficult for me.

She kissed my jaw slowly, kissing down my neck, then stopping at the top of my chest. She sighed and rested her head on my arm, her face in my chest, her freezing breath coming out shortly and hitting me like sharp snow flakes.

I opened my eyes slowly and wrapped my arms around her again. "You're cold."

"No...but you're hungry..." she observed just after my stomach had protested for what felt like the hundredth time that hour. "I'm making my cake now."

"No," I groaned as she pulled out of my arms and rolled out of the side of my bed, skipping out toward the kitchen. I rolled my eyes and pulled myself out after her, grabbing my shirt on the way.

When I'd finally trudged my way into the kitchen, she was grabbing ingredients from around my kitchen and sitting them on the counter.

"I think it's going to storm..." she said thoughtfully, ignoring my as I held out my shirt for her.

I caught her as she moved to the fridge and held her as I pulled my shirt over her head and straightened it out, hitting her butt as I finished. "That skirt can hardly be called clothing...at least you'll be warmer in that."

Her eyes were still wide from my gesture, but she thanked me quickly and quietly and grabbed what she needed out of the fridge before moving back to the counter without looking at me, her dark cheeks a little redder than usual.

I watched her put the oven on preheat and mix all of the ingredients together silently, dipping my finger into the mixture every few minutes just to annoy her...I loved the way her eyes rolled and her mouth turned up at one side when something crossed her, even in the slightest way.

She looked up and out the window in the living room when the sixth crack of thunder sounded. I guessed that was the first one she'd been able to hear. She kept mixing, though, not seeming to worry about the unreliable storm that apparently _was_ on its way.

I stood up to get a bottle of water from the fridge and was just passing her when the loudest crack of thunder of the day disturbed the quiet of the kitchen. She jumped violently, gasping as the bowl of thick, chocolate liquid slipped slightly from her arms. That was all it needed, though, for hands to fail and let it fall to the floor. I don't know what came over me, because I definitely would have been able to catch it, but it just seemed like too much of an effort as I was already holding the door of the fridge open with my dominant hand stretched toward my bottle from earlier that morning.

She sighed sadly and put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, Quil."

I looked down at myself slowly, taking in the brown goo clinging to my skin and pajamas, as well as covering a fair bit of the floor and Claire's mostly bare legs.

"Don't worry about it, Claire-bear." I said, forgetting my water and closing the fridge. I grabbed her arms and pulled her hands from her face. She slipped on the mixture underneath her toes and hit my chocolate-splattered chest lightly, pulling back a little with her eyes screwed shut. She wiped it off with her right hand, then looked at it slowly. She put it to her mouth and removed it off her skin, looking up at me the whole time.

"What-" I did my best to take a step back as she moved toward me again, this time with a determined look on her face. I backed up into a bench and put both of my hands on it behind me as she licked a long splatter of chocolate off my skin.

I closed my eyes tightly, trying to tell myself not to get too worked up over her tongue on my skin as she bent slightly to get more of the chocolate off me. I gasped after almost two minutes of her letting her have her way with me and put my hands on her shoulders, holding her at arms' length away from me. "Claire, stop it. Now."

She bit her lip, smirking guiltily, and I looked away from her teeth on her soft skin, my hands still holding her away from me. It took another minute for me to let go of her, then I folded my arms.

"What's wrong, Quil?" she said, trying not to laugh. She glanced at my pajama pants quickly, then looked at the microwave, still smirking.

I shook my head and bent down, scooping a handful of chocolate mush and slapping it down her neck, almost from one shoulder to the other. She closed her eyes with her mouth clamping tightly, an annoyed expression, there was no doubt. She opened her eyes slowly and tilted her head up, her eyes locked on me the whole time. "Go on. Get rid of it."

I reached my hand out, but she shook her head, standing on her toes so she was higher. "You know how."

I sighed and took two small steps forward, then bent down and put my mouth to the chocolate on her collarbone, licking most of it off at once. She pointed to some that had run down her top and gave me a small, innocent smile when I gave her a look.

Instead of waiting for me to get rid of the rest of the runny chocolate, she jumped up and wrapped her arms and legs around me, kissing me softly. I leaned back against the counter and ran my hands up her sides, slightly lifting my overly-big shirt on her. I was so absorbed in her that my other senses weren't getting any attention at all...

That was when Embry and Marylyn burst through the door, right next to us. Claire scrambled off me and pulled my shirt down, blush already smothering her cheeks. She glared at the bottom of the cupboard furiously, obvious embarrassment on her face.

"I've gotta start knocking..." Embry mumbled thoughtfully. He sighed and readjusted Trinity more comfortably on his hip and didn't wait for anyone else to say anything before carrying her into the living room.

"Did you two...want help cleaning?" Marylyn asked uncomfortably.

Claire looked up at her mother, then turned and stormed quickly to my room. I gave Marylyn a short hello smile, then followed after my distraught Imprint.

* * *

**CPOV**

I woke up and opened my eyes, already knowing it'd be best if I just went back to sleep. Quil's warm chest under my cheek was making sure I didn't want to go anywhere, and it was only when I checked the small clock next to his bed and realised there was only a couple of hours until lunch time that I decided I should get up.

I got up as quietly as I could, hoping I wouldn't wake Quil up. We'd had a pretty late night...a couple of movies that we didn't really watch, then a chat where we didn't really talk...nothing my mother would disapprove of. Especially after walking in on us yesterday.

I tip-toed as quietly as I could into the kitchen, bit my lip when I saw Embry and jumped back around the corner to avoid talking to him. Since yesterday afternoon, I'd only seen him twice on his way to the bathroom. No words had been spoken between us, though.

"Come on out, Claire-bear, I saw you."

I sighed and walked slowly around the corner, with what I thought was a guilty expression on my face. "Morning, Em."

"Just made it!" he said approvingly.

I narrowed my eyes and turned my head a little, silently asking him what he was talking about.

"To...to say good morning? Because it's nearly afternoon?"

I nodded a couple of times and trudged past him slowly to get some cereal. He waited until I was pouring it into my bowl to speak again.

"So what was Quil doing to you last night?"

I frowned and looked up at him with heavy eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I heard you." he said, telling me to drop the act that I seriously wasn't putting on. "At four-thirty this morning. Oops...did I say last night?"

"We were asleep by three." I said, sure of my answer.

"C'mon! Look how tired you are!" He shook his head slowly. "You'd stopped your making-out by three." he said. "You should really stop judging my hearing, Claire...and I should really stop sleeping here."

I paused to think for a few seconds then was sure I was positive. "No, I was asleep by three." I frowned again and looked at him, confused. "Why? What did you hear?"

He then went on to imitate noises, which I would not recommend anyone trying to think or imitate. I'll bet the minute that followed was painful for both of us...or just to me. Embry was probably getting a huge kick out of it.

"Okay, you can stop now!" I said, holding up my hands as I blushed a furious red.

He grinned. "I feel sorry for you." he said, shaking his head. "All those noises coming out of you, and nothing whatsoever from Quil."

"We were _not_ doing - anything last night. We went to sleep at three in the morning, and I just woke up for the first time now."

He saw I was being serious, then his smile got wider. "Then what were you dreaming of?"

My jaw dropped in horror. "Oh, no!"

"Do you remember any..._good dreams _you had last night?"

"No, I don't remember any at all!" I said in a raised voice, forgetting Quil was sleeping in the room just down the hall.

He chuckled. "I bet Quil does."

"You don't think he heard?"

He snorted like I was mad. "Claire, you woke _me_ up! You weresleeping _on top _of him!"

"Not completely on top of him..."

Embry laughed silently, then calmed himself quickly when I shushed him. "Fine...I just can't wait to see how Quil is when he gets out here.

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**I hope you liked it! Reviews are always welcome.**

**I had a major writing splurge last night, so I only have a few more chapters until it's finished! :( I'm going to miss Claire and Quil so much!**

**And I have another question; Do American people use the term 'busking'? I don't know if it's just Australian or not...it kind of sounds like an Australian word. But I mean for when people stand on the street or in a public place and play their music. If you guys could get back to me on that, that would be fantastic. It's for another story that I just might get around to writing. :)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	65. Chapter Sixty Four

**Wella hey-howdy-hey! I just watched Toy Story 2...I'm pathetic, I know. Haha, I don't care. I found a Jessie doll the other day and almost died from excitement, but I didn't have any money. Phooey...oh well.**

**And let me just say that Claire and Quil take a BIG step forward in their relationship in this chapter...that's all.**

**Thank you so much to these people;**** ShadowPix, Beachbunny24, bookworm1545, vampiremom1221, BookloverLaura, MissingMommy, LockDown, ShadowInTheNight1, alynawt, nwflgl, twilightaddict323, laurazuleta18, allisonlang, VampireAngel91, XxsweetcakexX, crayola music, weesh, HeyI'mSarah, allgirlsloveavampire, twi-nighter, Sweet-Laughter, ObsessedWithTwilight20, ILUVJACOBBLACK123, and big hugs to those of you two answered my question from last chapter. :)**

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**Chapter 64**

I'd decided I should go home after the...incident that night. Especially after the way Quil had been acting the morning after. He walked warily into the kitchen while I blushed furiously and Embry made movements behind the refridgerator door at me where Quil couldn't see it.

"Morning," he murmured, kissing my cheek gently. I looked at the bench, blushing impossibly more. Obviously he'd heard - our good morning kissed usually consisted of my heart wanting to beat out of my chest while his warm hands held my face to his. _Never_ a kiss on the cheek...

Embry leant further into the fridge while his back shook from either being cold, or laughter. I was going to go with the latter.

He sat in the chair beside me, neither of us saying anything, and Embry pulled a chair to the other side of the counter, sitting himself down with a bowl of cereal. "I had the _weirdest_ dream last night!" he said, putting a spoonful of cereal in his mouth and chewing it while watching me. "It envolved dancing carrots, and I was a king...what did _you_ dream about last night, Claire?"

I bit my lip and glared at the counter, trying not to burst into tears. "You know...things...the usual..." I murmured quietly. I looked up at the two of them and stood from my seat. "I think I'll go have a shower.

I just about slammed the door behind me and went straight to the sink, putting my face in my hands in total embarrassment. I almost screamed when two warm hands made themselves present on my sides.

"You scared me!" I gasped after jumping.

Quil didn't speak, but kissed me harshly, pushing me into the wall of the bathroom, up against the mirror. I couldn't help but knot my fingers in his hair so tightly they started to ache. He broke apart from me after half a minute and kissed the corner of my eye. "Don't let Embry get to you," he whispered into my ear, his hot breath making me want to keep him there forever. "I dream about you, too."

Then he left me in the bathroom, completely stunned, with only a small smile over his shoulder as he left.

So, for a couple of weeks, I hadn't stayed there at all. He had stayed late at my house most nights, others falling asleep with me on my matress, but I knew he could tell I was uneasy about falling asleep about him, so mostly he tried to get out before I could drop.

We'd had an idea, however, that had helped us not miss each other too much - every moring we'd swap pillow cases so the smell of the other hung around each of us while we were trying to fall asleep. It was really comforting...I could pretend he was right next to me like every other night in the past, even though I was freezing my butt off. He'd been worried about me getting cold, but I'd assured him I was fine...okay, I was a liar.

I just couldn't wait until we were over the next obstacle in our relationship. That way it wouldn't matter what I said or did in my sleep. And we'd come close to it since the day in the kitchen when my mother and Embry had walked in on us...we just hadn't had the chance to go all the way yet. Thank God Embry hadn't been the cause for any more of our stopping, though.

It was the start of Feburary when I'd had enough. I was frozen right through, and I'd felt like I had been for a week straight, so I made Embry drive me to Quil's house when he'd come around to visit my sister.

He was wearing my favorite outfit for him - no shirt, his baggy jeans that fit perfectly on his hips, and black Coverse. He must've just gotten home, because he was kicking his shoes off as he looked up at me. Shirts always off first with Quil...

"Hey, Claire-bear." he said, smiling at me as I walked into the living room I hadn't been in for days.

"Hi," I said, interrupting him trying to take his left shoe off to kiss him quickly, smiling at the warmth that flooded me immediately.

"What're you doing?" he asked as I stepped away, getting rid of his other shoe and pulling his socks off quickly.

"Nothing...and I was getting a little cold, so I thought I'd come over." I said, taking off my coat and putting it on the back of the chair next to him at the table.

His eyes turned a little regretful all of a sudden, and he looked at the clock hanging by the door I'd just walked through. "I'm sorry, Claire-bear," he started, taking my hands and pulling me to him. "Jacob put me on duty tonight."

"It's Thursday," I recalled, despair making me bite my lip in sadness.

"I have to leave in half an hour." he said, brushing his hand through my hair. "But you can stay here if you want. I'll be back after midnight, but I won't wake you up."

I remembered what had happened last time I'd stayed at his place and shook my head. "Nah, I don't have any of my school things." I said quickly. "And Embry said he'd take me back when he gets home from my house."

"Okay." he sighed, pulling me over to the couch. "Well, we'd best make good of the time we have until I leave..."

He turned on the television silently, staring at it and not me as he held both of my hands. "You're too cold." he said after a few minutes, kissing them and holding them tighter. "Come here."

I crawled into his open arms and kissed his neck softly, resting my hands on his chest. "I love you." I said quietly, resting my head on his shoulder.

He looked down at me and smiled, rubbing my thigh. "I love you more."

"No, I love you more." I said, sitting up and straddling him. "And I think you look really hot in those jeans."

"I think you look really hot in that skirt." he said, pulling the hem of it.

"It looks better off me." I said bravely, giving him a cheeky grin as he grabbed my waist and rolled us over so we were lying across the couch. I giggled as he kissed my neck above me, feeling hot for the first time in ages from the temperature of his skin.

"You have to patrol." I gasped as his warm hand grabbed my rib cage roughly.

He sighed and kissed my mouth messily, silencing me from anything else I had to say. But who was I to complain? This was what I had to get out of the way before I was completely comfortable with being around him twenty-four/seven.

It wasn't until my jacket, shirt, skirt and tights were on the ground that I started feeling hesitant. Would it hurt as much as Nessie had explained? Would Jacob be mad when Quil didn't show up for patrol? Would Embry decide to come home early again? Was I as ready for this as I'd told myself I was?

"Quil?" I asked him weakly as his hands moved to the strap of my bra, lifting me slightly off the couch without putting anything into it.

"Mm?" he asked, kissing the base of my neck softly.

I told myself to stop being stupid and shut my mouth again. He started sliding the thin blue straps down my arms and I pulled my hands out of his hair and clutched my arms to my chest.

He stopped and pushed himself up, getting off me completely and sitting up the other side of the couch. "Sorry, Claire."

"No, shut up." I said, putting my hands over my face and blocking out everything while I tried to get my thoughts straight. _Why're you stopping?_ My thoughts shrieked. _It's gotta happen sooner or later! The sooner the better, remember? Now pull him back on top of you and go for it!_ "Okay," I said, taking my hands off my face and reaching out to grab him and pull him back to me.

"We don't have to if you don't want to." he said, harshly wrapping my left leg around his hip and making it very hard for me to say no anyway.

"We're going to do this." I said, forcing him to roll us over so I was on top of him instead. My bra slid off my arms on its own, and I tried to ignore the fact that I was mostly naked in front of Quil for the first time since I was a baby. It was harder to ignore it with Quil's warm fingers tracing patterns over the skin on my chest, though...

I'd gathered all the bravery I needed to unbutton the first button on Quil's jeans before his phone started ringing on the floor where he'd dropped it earlier, making both of us freeze and look in the direction of it.

"Are you gonna get that?" I asked him breathlessly in the second we weren't kissing.

"Nope." he said, grabbing my face and holding it to him before I could reply.

His phone kept ringing...and ringing...and ringing...and ringing, until it was driving me crazy. Nothing would be perfect with that in the background. I stopped kissing him and crawled off him, rolling onto the phone and checking the number on the screen before opening it, annoyed.

"Hello?" I turned away from Quil, who was watching me, looking as if he had no idea why I'd left.

_"Where's Quil, Claire?" _Jacob sounded a little annoyed, too.

"He's here...can't he stay home this one night?" I begged him weakly. It was Jacob - he was one of my best friends. Of course he'd let Quil have one harmless little night with me.

...Well, harmless for the pack.

_"Sorry, Claire,"_ Jacob said, not sounding sorry at all. Ew. He was in Alpha mode. _"Quil's going to have to get here right now. We've got those two vamps that've been hanging around for the last couple of months, and we think we might be able to actually catch them this time."_

"Fine." I said angrilly, hanging up on him and throwing the phone lightly at the floor.

"Sorry, gorgeous." Quil said, grabbing my hands and pulling me up. He held me closely, kissing the top of my head repeatedly while his arms wrapped themselves around my back as tightly as they could without him worrying about breaking me. "You can wait here if you really want to, but by the sound of that phone call, I won't be back until later than I thought."

"I'll just go home." I sniffed, kissing his chest and wrapping my arms around his neck. "I hate Jacob." I whispered.

He sighed and picked me up, squeezing me tighter before putting me on the ground and kissing me softly. "If you're not here, I'll have a shower and come to your house."

"Don't bother." I said quietly, looking away from him. I hadn't forgotten that I wasn't wearing anything on my upper half, and the whole situation was really embarrassing for me.

"I'll miss you." he said, brushing the part of my stomach that made me reflexively clench my stomach muscles. He smirked. "Love you, Claire-bear."

I sighed as I watched him walk out of the door and sat down on the couch, looking at the curtains covering the window on the opposite wall.

"I hate life." I said bitterly before putting my clothes back on.

* * *

It was just over a week later when I was making my way back to Quil's house with the whole night planned out in my head. Embry had told me that Quil got of duty at six o'clock that night, so I was at his house by half past five.

I smiled widely at the red and pink roses on the table and leaned over to smell them gently, pulling a pink one out of the vase and carrying it into Quil's bedroom with me.

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than doing what we'd been trying to get done for such a long time? Embry had agreed to stay at my house for the night, and Jacob had promised me that Quil definitely finished at six.

So, I was waiting for him in his room, under his covers so I wouldn't get cold, and watching the rain fall out the widow, waiting for him to get home...

* * *

"Claire-bear?" Quil's voice was what woke me up, thank God. It was the best sound in the world! "Claire!"

"Hm?" I asked, opening my eyes to a pitch black room. Damn. I'd fallen asleep. "What time is it?"

"Two in the morning." Quil said quietly, turning on the lamp beside his bed.

"Damn it." I said glumly. "I didn't get to see you for Valentine's Day...I'm sorry Quil." for some reason telling him what I'd had planned didn't seem like such a big idea...going back to sleep, however...that sounded like Heaven.

"No, I'm sorry, Baby." he said, grabbing my hand to keep me awake. "Those two vampires we've been after forever came back and we got rid of them."

"Aw...that's so great." I said, giving him the best smile I could manage.

"That's why I was so late..."

"That's alright, Quil." I said, patting his shoulder. "I thought we were going to sleep together, but now I'm really tired, so I don't think I'm up for it...and it's not Valentine's Day anymore, anyway..."

"Of course it is." Quil said, pushing the small clock with the glowing red numbers off the bench under his lamp. "This is our Valentine's Night."

"That's funny..." I said, yawning widely and closing my eyes, unable to help myself.

He chuckled and kissed me softly. "You have to wake up." he said, kissing me again. "I have to give you your present."

"Flowers." I said, reaching for the rose I'd left near my feet on the bed. "You got me roses..."

"Just flowers." he said, picking it up and handing it to me. I grabbed it roughly, trying to wake myself up and pierced the palm of my hand on one of the thorns of the stem.

"Ouch!" That was enough to wake me up more.

"I'm so sorry, Claire-bear!" he said, siezing my hand immediately and kissing the small puncture wound.

"It's okay." I whispered hushing him. "Now hurry up; I'm still tired." I joked, giving him a small kiss and pushing myself half-up on my elbow.

He cleared his throat and took the hand I'd hurt, kissing the other side of it and looking me in my sleepy eyes. "You know how much I love you, right?"

"Sure," I said, nodding drowsily a couple of times. "Almost as much as I love you..."

"More," he corrected.

I was in no mood to tell him he was wrong. "Fine. More." I huffed.

He nodded. "Okay...and...you know I'll love you forever and ever?"

"Mm-hm," I nodded again. "And when you die and leave me behind because you don't want me to die before you, you're gonna save me a spot in the sky." we'd already had this conversation. I'd never be able to come up with 'A Spot in the Sky' myself with how tired I was...

"Okay, you obviously don't want to hear the speech I was trying to plan out." he laughed quietly. "So I'll just ask."

"Fire away!" I mumbled, trying to sound more awake.

"Will you marry me, Claire?"

That took a few seconds. I frowned at him, then my eyes got wider and I gave him a look that probably made me look like a confused turtle. "What?"

"Will you marry me?" he asked, grabbing a small, black box out of his pocket and opening it, holding it up for me to say. A bronze-colored ring in the shape of a tiny, pointed flower sat in the middle of it. A small amber stone shone out from the corner of each petal of the flower, and the band of the ring was like a vine of tiny, bronze leaves.

I looked up at him and burst into tears.

"Claire?" he dropped the box and took my face in my hands, holding it up so I looked straight at him. "You don't have to say yes if you don't want to!"

I sniffed and gave him a serious look. "You better not have hurt that ring." I threatened.

He grinned and picked it up. "Is that a yes?"

I nodded, silently begging myself to stop crying. "Uh-huh. Yes, a million and thirty-one times. Of course."

He smiled widely and took my left hand again, being careful not to touch the part of my palm I'd stabbed. "I love you." he said quietly, sliding the ring onto my third finger and giving me a happy look. "But you really should start making things interesting."

I kissed him messily and rolled my eyes, which had somehow got heavy again and lifted the blankets, struggling even with the light weight of them. "Shut up and get into bed with me."

He grinned and jumped up, wrapping his arms around me roughly and rolling me over with ease. "I know I'm going to sound like a woman when I say this, but I really think anything more we did tonight wouldn't be able to make me happier."

"You sound honest." I said, kissing his cheek. "Quilina."

He mussed my hair and took my hand, holding it to his chest as we watched each other for a few minites.

"You're tired." he said quietly after a while, kissing the corner of my left eye.

"And you're my fiancé." I said, grinning stupidly as he reached over to turn the lamp behind me off. "Quil, we're getting married!" I said excitedly, still feeling tired and not being able to tell if my words were slurring or not. "Maybe we should wait until our Honeymoon...then I'll be able to wear a white dress without feeling dishonest."

"Don't push it." he jokingly warned in the darkness.

I giggled happily and closed my eyes. "I have to go to sleep."

"I know." he said, kissing each of my eyelids. "I'll be right here when you wake up to get anything else you have to say."

"Thank you, Quil." I said, kissing him softly. "The best fiancé in the world...my fiancé...wedding cake..."

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**Hehe, was that the BIG step you were thinking of? :D**

**I'll update on Tuesday, as usual. I hope you guys liked it!**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Chlowie, xo**


	66. Chapter Sixty Five

**Hey, guys. I should really be practising and getting ready for a concert tonight, but I'm back a little early because I GOT A THOUSAND REVIEWS! Aw, thank you so much to anyone who ever reviewed my story, especially to these crazy critters; ****Himeka Tsukiyomi, allgirlsloveavampire, AlyCullen320, ShadowInTheNight1, Itzy, bookworm1545, Beachbunny24, MissingMommy, twilightaddict323, ShadowPix, sweetcarebear09, XxsweetcakexX, LockDown, ObsessedWithTwilight20, laurazuleta18, spannieren, BookloverLaura, queenybee8289, twi-nighter, HeyI'mSarah, Asha123, vampiremom1221, xXGh0stXx and guys in my head who reviewed since Tuesday!**

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**Chapter 65**

I woke up sweating, which had been something that I'd strangely missed afted avoiding Quil during sleeping hours.

I opened my eyes slowly, looking straight into his big brown ones less than two inches away and gave him a small smile before remembering the night (or really, extremely early morning) before and smiling wider.

"Something you remembered?" He asked, grabbing my left hand and pulling it out of the blankets for us both to see the bronze ring on my finger.

I exclaimed gleefully and gave him a huge kiss, probably ripping a few hairs out of his head before pulling back and looking at my ring again. "I love you, Quil."

"But not as much as I love you." he said, looking as though he'd won a competition between us. "You admitted so yourself last night."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, I don't have some freaky wolf power on my side..."

"Stop looking at that thing and look at me." he said, trying to get right behind my finger so I was looking at him anyway.

"Nope. Sorry. You gave it to me...you should have gone through the consequences."

"So you like it?" he asked hopefully.

"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in all of my life." I said honestly, kissing him as softly as I could before rolling as closely as I could to him to keep warm. "It's cold once I get further away from you."

"Look out the window." he whispered.

I sat up and looked out the window, biting my lip in excitement. "It's snowing! That's the best kind of weather!"

"I thought we could spend this morning in bed, but then it started snowing, so I figured we'd go for a walk through the forest before it stopped, then come back, have a shower and snuggle for the rest of the afternoon."

"How about we save water and shower together?" I asked jokingly, kissing him one more time before hopping out of his bed and skipping to my bag, ignoring the freezing cold that hit me once out of the blankets and Quil's arms. I grabbed the prettiest outfit I had brought - which just happened to be the prettiest I owned for cold weather...I never left for Quil's house without it, and it had been a while since I'd worn it, then ran into the bathroom to change, even though I hardly had to do that anymore.

After I was dressed in my purple tights, blue and yellow leg warmers, boots, dark red dress and grey coat, I hopped out of the bathroom, straight into Quil's arms.

"You have to get dressed!" I said immediately.

He looked down at himself. "I thought I was..."

"No, no, no!" I said, grabbing his hand and dragging him back into his room. "In your best outfit."

"So we'll be matching." he said, reluctantly letting go of my hand as I tried to jump to the closet on the other side of his bed.

"These jeans." I said, grabbing my favorite jeans of his off the hanger they were on at the bottom of his closet and throwing them off him. I turned around to grab his black Converse off the floor of his closet and put them on the bed near where he was sitting. He had already changed into his jeans...he could really get into a circus to be one of those quick-change artists.

"And this shirt?"

"No shirt." I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Ah!"

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, grinning at me and putting his hands on my shoulders, as if he was trying to hold me to the ground.

"I'm so excited!" I almost yelled.

"About our walk?"

"About everything!" I said, giving him a huge hug. "Oh! I have to do my hair!"

He laughed. "Claire, we're going for a walk in the middle of no where." he said, following me to my bag, then into the bathroom after I'd gotten my new curling iron. Thank you, Alice!

"A woman has to look her best, Quil." I sighed. "Especially one who's getting married...I don't want my fiancé to run away from my bed hair."

He rolled his eyes, but didn't stop smiling widely, helping me plug in the iron and sitting on the rim of the bath tub while I grabbed different sections of my hair.

"Did I miss any?" I asked him, turning around once.

He shook his head. "Your hair's getting really long." he murmured, grabbing a lock of curls I'd just attempted and pulling me to him. "Have I ever told you I love you?"

I smiled at him. "No, never..." I was half way through kissing him before I remembered the snow. "Quick! We have to go on our walk!"

He chuckled and picked me up, throwing me on his back and holding my legs as he walked out of the bathroom, flicking the curling iron off on the way.

"Embry!" I screamed at the car that pulled up just as we got outside. "Embry, guess what happened?"

"Something exciting, I'll bet." Embry grinned before giving Quil a fake look. "Did you finally get the guts to touch her somewhere other than her hands?"

"Look!" I said happy, throwing my left hand as close to his face as I could manage without jumping off Quil's back.

"Oh, yeah!" he said, holding my hand and looking at my ring for a couple of seconds. "I forgot all about that."

"What did you think I was freaking out about so badly yesterday?" Quil asked, readjusting me on his back.

Embry smiled slyly. "What Claire had planned...she didn't seem to be freaking out too much." he laughed quietly and walked past us, to his house. "Congratulations, Claire. Quil'll be a wonderful wife."

Quil shook his head as he disappeared inside, when continued walking. "He's an idiot."

"Don't worry," I said, resting my face between his neck and shoulder. "We'll get our chance for revenge when he's falling for my sister."

He put me down when we'd gotten to the long stretch of grass leading to the edge of the forest and took my hand instead, walking just a little behind me as my excitement and twitchiness from the cold weather lead me forward quickly.

"I'm sorry I was so tired last night." I said after a few minutes of us wandering aimlessly through the trees.

"That's okay." he said, walking behind me and wrapping his arms around my chest, holding me to him as we moved. "You just made my whole day of planning out what I was going to say to you pointless."

I smirked and turned around quickly, bumping into him and losing my balance of slippery footing. He caught me just before I could hit the icy ground and pulled me back up to face him. "You can tell me now."

"I didn't really have anything planned to say..." He watched me for a few seconds before taking a step away from me and holding out his hand. "Give me the ring."

"No," I said, moving back and putting my right hand to my left. "It's mine."

"I'll give it right back." he sighed, holding out his hand more persistently.

"Fine," I said glumly, sliding it off my finger and handing it to him carefully. "Don't drop it."

"I'm not gonna drop it."

He led me to a large rock enclosed by small trees and sat me down, looking as though he was concentrating very hard on something. I bit my lip to stop from laughing nervously as he lowered himself onto one knee and looked up at me.

"Claire," he said seriously, no trace of laughter on his face. "If I tried to tell you how much I love you, we'd be here for eternity for two reasons; no words to describe it have been created yet, and I'd have to say it an infinite number of times over.

"You are the most perfect girl I have ever met in my life. I love absolutely everything about you, from your hair to your brilliant figure, your voice, your nervous giggle, the fact that you claim to love me as much as I love you. The way you play with your hair when you're nervous. The way you try to rush into things irrationally. How you can make me say things I never thought I would. The way your skin feels in my hands. The way you kiss. The way you always think of others before yourself...well, most of the time." I grinned with him. "If I hadn't Imprinted on you, I'd probably still be in love with you. You are, without a doubt, the most perfect girl ever created for me.

"I can't imagine myself with anyone else in the world because it would just be wrong. I'm so glad you were sent to me, and I don't ever want to let you go. Will you marry me?"

A small giggle sputtered out of me and I grinned like an idiot. "Yes," I said, letting him take my left hand and replace my ring.

"Thank you," we both said at the same time. I stood up from my seat and bent over, kissing him lightly with my hands on either side of his face. His lips smirked under mind as his fingers dug into my hips, and he pulled me down, pinning me to the frosty ground next to him.

I gasped, not knowing I was falling until after his hands were holding me and his lips were on mine. "I love you." he said, letting me go and lying next to me.

"I love you, too." I said, taking his hand and holding it to my chest. "But you made me cold..."

He smiled and opened his arms, letting me lay on his chest. "How're you gonna tell your mom?"

"I'll just walk around the house like nothing's wrong and see if she notices." I joked, wondering how I _was_ going to do it.

"I'll tell her if you want." he said quietly. "Even though she _does_ scare me sometimes."

"Only when she's pregnant."

He laughed and put his hand out, catching a tiny snowflake. "It started snowing again."

I rolled over on his chest and opened my mouth. After a while I closed it and watched them float down around us. It was a light shower, and Quil's arms around me kept me warmer than I needed to be.

I loved being me.

* * *

**QPOV**

"Watch out!"

"Oop...thank you." Claire said as I caught her from slipping over on the icy driveway outside her house.

I took her hand, just in case the ice had some effect on her walking ability during the short distance to the front door of her mother's house.

"Are you sure you want to do this youself? I am the culprit, after all." I said, pausing outside the door and kissing her softly.

"I'll get it done, don't you worry." she assured me. "Besides, I never spend any time with her anymore, so I think this should be done just me. I'll call you later."

"Okay." I said, taking a step back. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." she said, blowing me a kiss as I reached my car. I watched her walk inside, heard her call out to her mother, and the pulled out of her driveway, thinking about her the whole way home.

* * *

"What're you doing?" Embry asked, stirring his macarroni as he watched me check my phone. "You've looked at the screen of that thing a hundred times since you've been here."

"I'm waiting for a call." I said, throwing it on the floor beside the couch. "How many of those have you eaten since I've been here?"

"Twelve..." he said, checking the box and putting it in the bin. "We need some more...chicken flavored, please."

"You can buy it."

"So you and Claire didn't get up to anything last night, then?" he asked, sitting in the arm chair and stuffing his mouth with maccaroni.

"Nope. She was tired."

"She's gonna get bored with you." he warned me.

I rolled my eyes. "When it happens, it happens, Em. I'm not pressuring her into anything."

"She wants it as bad as you do." he said. "I just keep getting in the way." he chuckled quietly.

"Thanks for that, by the way."

"Ah, I'm sorry. If I could afford my own rent, I'd get my own place."

"If I could afford my own rent, I'd kick you out." I joked. I was looking forward to one day getting a house with Claire, but it was sad to think I'd finally be moving away from Embry. He'd practically lived at my house while we were growing up, and we'd been just like brothers with Jacob. Now he was living with his wife and planning his future without us, and I didn't really want to leave Embry alone while I did that, too.

My phone started ringing, and I leapt for it, grabbing it by the end of the first ring. "Hello?"

"Quil!" Marylyn's voice came from the other end of the phone. "Congratulations!"

At least she wasn't mad about me taking her eldest daughter away from her at such a young age. "Oh, hey, Mar. Thanks."

"I was getting worried that you and Claire were getting sick of each other when she stopped staying at your house -" I grimmaced, thinking about the reason for our slight departure. "-but you've always seemed like someone so close to the centre of our family, and I can't imagine Claire being with anyoe else...can I just ask something?"

"Sure?" as if I had a choice against Marylyn...

"Don't marry her while she's sixteen, please...it always seems so scandalous on TV."

I laughed. "Okay, Mar. I promise."

"And I want to talk to you about it all, too." she said. "I get the feeling I should put on my Responsible Mother Pants and put the two of you under pressure about the whole thing, but deep down I'm ecstatic about it...oh, you two are so perfect! And you're going to let me help with the wedding, aren't you?"

"I don't think that's really up to me," I chuckled. Alice and Nessie would probably take everything out of mine and Claire's hands, not letting either of us have a chance to interfere with our own wedding. "Do the men usually get a say at all? I'll recommend you to the people in control, though." I told her. "But I don't think we'll be thinking about the actual wedding for a while now...especially if she has to be older. I haven't given it much thought at all."

"Well, I have, and I've known about it for half an hour. Claire agrees with me about the flowers, but she wasn't very set on talking about it...maybe she wants to wait a little while, too... Oh, but Quil, I can tell how happy she is. Thank you so much for taking care of her!"

"That's okay, Marylyn." I said, throwing Embry a dirty look as he started laughing.

"Well, I'm going now. Trinity's awake. I'll talk to you later, Quil."

"Bye." I said weakly, hanging up the phone.

"Dee's awake." Embry said, standing from the arm chair. "Should I go over?"

"I'm sure she can do without you for an hour." I said, taking my seat again and staring out the window on the opposite wall. "Marylyn's more excited about this than I am...is there something wrong with me?"

"Naw, she just has a hopeless life and wants some excitement...God, that sounds depressing." Embry said truthfully.

"And you have it all to look forward to when Trinity gets older..." I grinned at him as he gave me a worried look.

* * *

**I think I'm going to change the rating of this story to a T...you can all blame it on LockDown. Haha, no I'm kidding. Thank you very much for explaining ratings to me in better description, LockDown. :)**

**Yeah, I know what a lot of people want to read, and I've been trying really hard to write it to fit with the M rating, but I just can't. I suck. It's too hard. I know, I'm hopeless. I'm sorry! :( I suppose I'm just too innocent...heheh.**

**I should be back on Tuesday to update as usual.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	67. Chapter Sixty Six

**Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry this didn't get put up sooner! I've been having some trouble with the internet, and it makes me really frustrated, but it seemed to be in an alright mood today!**

**Thank yous to; ****AlyCullen320, nwflgl, Limoinslowmo, HeyI'mSarah, Itzy, BookloverLaura, ShadowInTheNight1, bookworm1545, LockDown, ShadowPix, twilightaddict323, crayola music, laurazuleta18, vampiremom1221, allgirlsloveavampire, MissingMommy, Asha123, alynawt, meggy1508, ObsessedWithTwilight20 and XxsweetcakexX for reviewing!**

**Hope you like the chapter... ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 66**

**CPOV**

"Mom's driving me crazy." I groaned, ignoring Nessie as she took my left hand to look at my ring again.

"Same." Quil said, grinning. He was talking about _my_ mom, not his...that was what was sad about it. "She's talking to me more than you are, I swear...and Huyana found out a couple of weeks ago. She's been asking about you a heap, Claire-bear. She wants a Girls' Day with the two of you."

"A picnic!" Nessie exclaimed excitedly.

"We never get invited on their Girls' Days!" Jacob complained loudly to Quil, who shrugged, as if he couldn't imagine why.

The four of us were sitting in Nessie and Jake's small living room, in front of the open fire place, though I was the only one who needed it. Quil was sitting behind me on the small, squashy couch while I was seated on the thick rug between his feet next to Nessie.

"Everyone's been giving us so much attention..." I said thoughtfully. "No one's been thinking about you." I looked up at Quil sadly.

"It's your birthday this month!" Nessie remembered, clapping her hands a couple of times. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." he said, taking my hands and pulling me up, onto his lap.

"I have to get you something." Nessie muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, what do you want?" I asked him, feeling relieved as my hands warmed up immediately.

He shook his head. "I only ever wanted you." he said quietly, tracing down my nose and around my lips slowly with the tip of his finger.

"Aw, that's all very nice and everything, but I'm thinking the wedding's a bigger deal than your birthday, Quil...especially when you don't even celebrate getting older." Nessie said, holding up my hand. "No offence or anything...but I'm really excited."

"You're not invited." Quil said at once.

She stuck her tongue out at him and turned to me. "Who's gonna be your Maid of Honour?"

"I was thinking Kelsi..." I said, trying to look serious. She squealed and hugged me.

"Of course I will be! You know I want to...what dresses will you want us to wear? Is Alice gonna be your Bride'smaid? She'll kill me if you don't ask her..."

"Of course she is." I said, biting my lip as Quil gave me a look that pleaded for us to stop. "No, but we're not considering it for ages, Nessie, so let's just concentrate on the present and worry about the wedding when I'm old enough for my mother to allow me to get married."

"Fine." Nessie said, pouting a little. She looked at her own husband and gave him a small smile. "Are you and Quil gonna leave us with some girl time?"

"I'd never want to get rid of you." Jacob grinned giving her a long kiss before standing up and turning to the door. "Let's go, Quil."

Quil and I had our own goodbye, and the two of them disappeared out of the door and toward the thicker part of the forest. Nessie and Jake's house hadn't been built very far away from Bella and Edward's cottage, but far enough away that they didn't have to spend every waking moment with their family...and of course far enough away that Edward would have no reason to listen in to what they were thinking.

It had been decorated by Nessie and Jacob themselves, rather than Esme like she wanted. Bits and pieces of odd art and wall decorations had been hung around on every blank surface. There was a long wooden table in the dining room, surrounded by odd chairs, some with brightly colored cushions. Nessie poured two cups of tea, filled one with sugar and walked us over to the table quietly, sitting on the corner so she was facing me.

"You haven't got anything for Quil for his birthday."

"I have no idea what to get him!" I said, desperate for her help. "I mean, he said he didn't need anything, because of the car I got him for Christmas..."

"But you want to get him something anyway?"

"Of course I do! But he won't tell me what he wants!" I said, frustrated.

"Claire," Nessie began reasonably. "He just told you exactly what he wanted."

I thought back and frowned at her. "Me?"

"You." she said, nodding vigorously.

I sighed. "Nessie..."

"You've said yourself the two of you've been trying to...to get things done for ages. Just tell Embry to stay away from the house, turn your phones off and lock him in his room. Happy Birthday, Quil!"

"What happened to the sweet, innocent Nessie I used to know?" I asked, getting only a smirk and a shrug in return.

* * *

So, I'd planned everything out. Just like Nessie had told me to. Embry had agreed to spend the night at my house with Trinity, Jacob knew not to schedule Quil for the night of his birthday, and my phone was safetly on silent in the bottom of one of my shoes, locked away in Quil's closet.

I was supposed to walk to Quil's house after school, so it surprized me when I noticed Alice's bright yellow Porsche parked between a few rusted heaps on the side of the road.

"Claire!" she called, waving her arm out the window and attracting anyone who wasn't already staring at her car.

I glanced around uneasily and walked to the car with my head down. The Cullens were rarely seen on the Quileute Reservation, but everyone knew about them. Since Nessie and Jacob were inseperable, the treaty seperating our tribe from their land and their coven from ours was just an old memory...it was just the fact of overcoming the old habits certain people in my life had about sticking to their side of the invisible line.

"What're you doing here?" I asked in a whisper when I was to the car. I opened the door and climbed into the passenger's seat, closing it quickly behind me.

"It started raining, so I thought I'd pick you up. Wet hair's not attractive, you know." she said, pulling away from the school quickly and speeding down the road. "I thought I'd take you to Quil's house...get you ready...that kind of thing."

I sighed and leaned against the window. "You know, I was already feeling nervous before...you've put those mosquitos from _Jumanji _in my stomach in place of the butterflies that were there before."

"Aw, look at you!" she said, reaching over and taking my hand. "Why're you nervous, Claire?"

"Because...it's Quil! And I have to be perfect in every single way for him!"

She laughed quietly. "You will be. You could be dressed in recycled milk cartons with half of a shaved head and Quil would still think you were perfect...that's the good thing about being an Imprint. No matter what, they think you'll be the most perfect thing on the planet...I mean, you could make Quil think shoulder pads were attractive again."

"I've seen a picture of you wearing shoulder pads..." I accused slowly.

She grinned. "Ah, I miss those days. But that was different. That was the fashion back then."

"What if they come back in?"

"Oh, trust me, they'll never be back in the way they were." she stopped in front of Quil's house and was at my door within a second opening it for me and slinging a bag over her shoulder. "Let's go."

I swallowed and bit my lip, following after her.

The house was empty, of course. Quil's shift at the garage didn't finish for over half an hour, so I still had about an hour until he got home. Alice dragged me into the bathroom and sat me down on the rim of the bath. "Get out of those wet clothes and put this on." she said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a small bundle of flowy, yellow material. "I got it in the color he's obsessed with you in, so that's aiming toward more perfect, I guess."

I frowned at it and looked back up at her. "What is this?"

"Your dress."

"I don't think this qualifies as a dress..." I said, studying it uneasily.

She tssked and grabbed matching underwear out of her bag, walking over to me at a fast pace for humans and pulling my shirt over my head. "You have to go with me on this." she said, taking my singlet off and throwing it into the bag on the bench. "Trust me. I know things."

"That doesn't mean I'm comfortable with them." I said, not wanting to look at myself as she stepped away from me.

"Aw, you look beautiful!"

"No, no, no..."

"Are you cold? You can put your jacket back on until he gets home if you want. Here. Look." she took my hand and pulled me to the mirror, smiling as she stood on her toes to look over my shoulder. "You're so gorgeous, Claire!"

"Alice, I'd be a lot more comfortable if it just happened...the way we usually start it." I said, biting my lip. I didn't want to admit to her what I really thought of it - I looked hot!

"Well, that's already out the window. You've had this planned for ages. And there's no such thing as a planned spur-of-the-moment!" She grabbed a brush out of her bag and tidied up my hair, pinning certain bits up behind my ears. "Finished! Quil'l be here in about twenty minutes...what're you gonna do?"

"Sing him 'Happy Birthday?'" I asked, feeling sick to my stomach.

She sighed and shook her head. "Just start it the way you always do, then. And tell me how everything goes. Nessie and I're already orgaising a sleep-over." she pulled me into a tight hug and kissed my forehead. "Don't be nervous, okay? That's a request from Jasper and me..."

"No promises." I murmured as she grabbed her bag. "And thanks, Alice."

She smiled and blew me a kiss, then I heard her at the front door. "That's okay, Claire." the door closed a second later, and I fell back, onto the rim of the bath again, my breathing getting heavier and my stomach churning. What was I doing? This was ridiculous! I stood up and opened the window, sticking my head into the freezing air outside. I put my hand out, past the roof above me and caught some of the reasonably light rain. All too soon, the front door opened again and I heard Quil sigh as he kicked his shoes off.

"Claire?" he asked after a second. Oh. Right. He could hear me. I slowly walked to the door of the bathroom and peered around it, smiling at him slightly.

"Happy Birthday." I walked quickly out to him, keeping my head down the whole time and wrapped my arms around him, my eyes squeezed shut as I wished I were anywhere else.

His arms were slow, but eventually made their way around me, too. "What..." he swallowed and pulled me back from him, giving me a cofused look.

"Alice did me up..." I said quietly, playing with the hem of his shirt. "Birthday present...surprize," Yes, I was nervous. But some of the nerves seemed to go away when I was talking, and my words were coming out all by themselves. Thankfully, Quil understood enough by this, and continued to finish my sentence for me.

All my nerves went away as he lifted me from the ground and sat me on the table behind me, kissing me softly. I knotted my hands in his hair, which was growing super quick _again, _and locked my legs tightly around his hips.

The single kiss lasted a couple of minutes, and I was way too lost in it to even realize we were moving, until I felt his soft matress under my back.

"Wait!" I gasped as soon as I'd remembered, pushing him off me. He moved back unwillingly, waiting for me to continue. "Give me your phone." I held out my hand, taking the phone he pulled out of pocket and crossing quickly to the cupboard. I put it on silent and shoved it in the shoe with mine, running as quickly as I could back to the bed and climbing under him. "Continue." okay, my confidence had gotten a major boost. I prayed it would stay that way.

Unfortunately, it didn't, but not until about twenty minutes later, when other things started happening. I paused a few times, apologising, until Quil had had enough.

"Claire," he said softly, taking my face in his hands. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"But I do!" I insisted, trailing a finger down his now bare chest. "I do..."

"I'm sorry if I hurt you." he whispered, looking away from me. "I'm sorry."

"Quil." I shook my head and started kissing him again, ending our conversation for the time being.

* * *

**QPOV**

I yawned and rolled over, smiling as my arms wrapped around Claire's sleeping form, her bare skin agaist my own. She mumbled something in Jibberish, then her hand found my arm as she nestled farther into my chest.

"Quil..."

"Are you awake?"

"Mm-hm..." she opened her eyes slowly and gave me a small smile. "Good morning."

"Good morning." I whispered, kissing the corner of her eye. "Are you alright?"

"Yep," she said without hesitation. "How about you?"

I laughed softly. "I'm alright."

"Did you have a good birthday?"

"The best ever." I murmured, holding her tighter as she closed her eyes again.

It was another hour before she woke up again. She sat up slowly, moaning as she stretched for a minute. "Ugh...everything hurts."

"I'm sorry." I apologized, stopping when she grinned.

"It was worth it. What do you want for breakfast?"

I shook my head. "You're staying right here. I'll get breakfast." I kissed her forehead gently before pulling on an old pair of pajama pants and leaving her, making my way to the kitchen.

**CPOV**

I watched him leave with a small smile on my face, then quickly reached down to grab his shirt from the night before. I pulled it over my head, gasping a little at the strain the small movements put my sore muscles under. Sitting back in the warm pillows Quil had just left, I did my best to go over details of the night before.

It had hurt more than the warning Nessie had thought to give me, worse because of the differences in our body temperatures. Yes, he'd been exceptionally gentle with me, pausing when I'd asked him to, apologizing for hurting me, telling me he loved me over and over again. Still...all the pain and nervousness aside, I wanted to remember every minute of it. It was the first time Quil and I had been the closest we ever could be, and I'm sure I would've endured much worse for it.

He interrupted my thoughts as he appeared at the door, carrying two bowls. He handed me one and sat behind me, pulling me onto his chest as I rested between his legs.

"Cereal! Quil, you've really gone to extents."

"I know, I know. I've outdone myself." I could hear the grin in his voice. "You deserve more than a muesli bar for breakfast." he murmured, kissing the top of my head.

I smiled and began my cereal, wondering when he'd get around to learning how to make toast that wasn't on fire.

* * *

**Hmm-hmmm...dah-dum...la, la, laaa...did you like it? I hope so!**

**I'll have the next chapter up on Tuesday fo' shizzle! Did I use that right? :P**

**Chlowie, xo**


	68. Chapter Sixty Seven

**Hi! Once again, I cannot express how sorry I am with words! This just didn't want to get written. I'm going in a totally different direction that what I originally had planned, but it should turn out alright anyway.**

**I wasn't expecting to get this up this afternoon, but I just thought 'why not?' I haven't even checked it for mistakes or anything... I'm sorry if everyone hates it! Hopefully the next few chapters will come out a heap easier, and then there will be room in my life for some other stories! Yay!**

**My email's a bit mixed up right now, so thank you to all the people who reviewed since the last chapter I posted! I'm sorry that I can't access your names properly to give you credit.**

* * *

**Chapter 67**

After Quil's birthday, it was a rare occasion that we would leave the house. Or, if we did need to leave to attend to something, we were always sure to have forgotten something or get the job done quick to get back home.

Unfortunately for the two of us, Alice seemed to think we were spending a little too much time together and requested us at a shop in Port Angeles. We walked throught the door, expecting just to meet the short pixie, but gave our attention to Nessie and Huyana, too.

"Bride'smaid dresses." Alice explained quickly, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the back of the store. "Now, I know you don't want anything major and fancy, which is why I didn't have anything made, but that means I can spend as much money as I want on dresses." she snorted and shook her head at Huyana, who had picked up the hem of a floor-length, dark brown dress covered in ugly green ruffles. Huyana hung her head and let the dress go, walking closely into Quil's side as Alice's eyes burnt angrilly into her ashamed face.

"Don't be like that with her." I whispered to Alice as Quil wrapped his arm around his sister's shoulders. "She's probably scared of you as it is."

"There are only a few things that I can absolutely not tolerate in this world, Claire," Alice began quietly as Nessie rolled her eyes behind her. "And one of them is people with absolutely no fashion sense. That dress was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life!" she stopped and put her hand out without looking, grabbing a long violet dress with decorative beads around the bust and holding it up next to her. _"This,"_ she began sternly. "Was more what I had in mind."

"That's really pretty." I mumbled quietly, reaching for the price tag.

She clucked her tongue and moved it out of my way. "I don't think so, Missy. You'll just have to have some trust and let me handle the money business." her eyes widened as I began to open my mouth. "With the dresses, anyway. I promise I won't go overboard with anything else."

It didn't really surprise me that the only three dresses left fit the three girls I was with perfectly. I had some suspiscions Alice had been in that store before, but I wasn't about to question her with them.

"Purple flowers in our hair?" Huyana asked Alice as we walked out of the store, three bags under the pixie's arm.

"You're finally talking sense." Alice grinned, opening the door of her Porche with her foot and putting the bags in the back of the car carefully. "Now, let's go to lunch, and then Quil has to leave while I take Claire to look at wedding dresses. I don't care what the two of you do." she said, looking up at Nessie and Huyana as she met us back on the sidewalk.

"Actually, Claire and I kind of had something planned." Quil began hesitantly.

"Oh, no you didn't!" Alice said, standing on the very tips of her toes and waving her finger as close to his face as she could (her hand only just reached his shoulder. "This is the first time I've actually seen the two of you for weeks, and you're not going to cut this day short for me, as well. I'm more excited about the wedding than the two of you put together, so I think I should get some thought, as well."

Quil opened his mouth to argue, but Huyana kicked him lightly on the back of his ankle and shook her head at him, as if to warn him to be careful.

So, Quil went to Jacob's garage to see if the guys working wanted an extra hand, and Alice dragged the two of us to the first store - Huyana had gone with her brother. "Can't you just take me straight to the dress I'm going to buy?" I asked her when she told me to have a look around.

She shook her head, looking closely at a few different dresses. "I've seen a few different dressed. You can't decide." she gave me a small smile. "After the three I've seen, there's nothing else. You're going to get married in a tracksuit, by the looks of things."

I rolled my eyes, knowing that would never happen, and started making my own way around the store, Nessie following me to give her own thoughts on each dress.

"Oh, this one, Claire!" Nessie said as she reached out to get a certain dress she had seen. "This would suit you so,"

I bit my lip and tilted my head to the side, as if that would help. "I don't know...I want to see a dress and think; 'That's it!'"

"Well, you're not going to find one today." Alice sighed, taking a seat on the small chair beside me and putting her chin in her hand. "But have a look around, anyway. I don't want to go home yet."

I tried on several dresses, admiring myself in them more than the actual items of clothing, and turned all of them down. I mean, they were really beautiful, but I was looking for the perfect one. After a few hours, I'd been laced up in white poofs and frills, and, on two occasions, strapped into a dress so tight I couldn't move my legs more than five inches away from each other.

"I think we should call it a day." I said, putting my hands to my stomach as it growled at me. "I'm hungry."

"When are we coming out again?" Alice asked, her eyes blurring as she spoke. "I'll pick you up on Saturday morning at half-past eight. We'll leave Nessie and Huyana behind this time."

"I'm coming!" Nessie objected angrilly.

"Fine," Alice sighed. "But I don't think Huyana will want to, anyway."

"You scared her." I giggled, smirking as I hopped back into the dressing room.

* * *

I scowled at my mother and kicked the door of the bathroom closed behind me angrilly. I was in a bad mood. Jacob had put Quil on patrol all of the night before, so I had to wake up by myself, get ready by myself, and go to school by myself. I brushed my hair slowly, frowning at myself in the mirror, and checked my phone in case I had missed a message from Quil. Nope. He'd probably passed out just inside his front door after getting home this morning. I smiled slightly at the picture in my head and gave my reflection a long look before walking to the front door of my house.

"Did you want me to give you a lift, Sweetie?" my mother asked from her place on the couch. She would have been waiting for Trinity to wake up. My baby sister still slept long hours through the day, and my mother didn't think this was fair, seeing as Embry was always in our living room when she seemed to be awake.

"No, I'm a little early, so I think I'll just walk. It's not too cold today." I said, sliding the door open as we spoke. "I'll see you this afternoon. Love you." I shut the door and made my bag more comfortable on my shoulder. I was just walking down the front steps when I finally looked up, my eyebrow arching automatically.

"What the hell're you doing here?" I asked Alice quietly, trodding slowly to her car.

Nessie grinned and leaned over her aunt. "Dress shopping! Alice found it! And she said seeing as you don't have more than a month at school, it won't hurt to miss out on today. You're not learning much, apparently."

"I don't know..."

"Aw, c'mon, Claire!" Alice whined, batting her long eyelashes. "It's a day of school in the town! With us! Your two favorite people in the world!"

I sighed and climbed in the back of her car without saying anything else. The idea of her following me slowly in her car all the way to my school was slightly off-putting.

"That's the spirit," she chirped, pulling away from the side of the road and driving quickly up the street.

We drove all the way into Seattle, which kind of annoyed me. This would mean I was away from Quil for longer, and he'd be wondering where I was after school time. I tried to ring him a couple of times, but there was no answer, so I gave up.

"Okay, tell me where to go, Claire." Alice said after a surprisingly short time.

I frowned at her in the rear vision mirror. "Alice, you're the one who saw it, not me._ You_ tell _me _where we're going." I sighed and looked out the window, studying a couple of stores. She took a right turn, and my eyes caught on what was probably the third bridal store we'd passed. It was a clean white color, and had deep purple drapes hanging in the window over a number of different dresses and suits.

"That one." I said without thinking. "Let's have a look in that one."

Alice stopped the car right out the front of the store and skipped off ahead of Nessie and me. "Can't she just tell me for once?" I asked quietly as Nessie rolled her eyes.

Nessie was the first to be drawn to any dresses. She quietly studied a sleek, sequined dress that I could see her in already.

"You've already been married." Alice said, taking her neice's hands off the dress and moving her over to where I was waiting. "This is all about Claire."

"Hurry up then." Nessie said grumpily, dropping onto a couch and putting her chin in her hand.

I smirked and walked off to the back of the shop, where there was a wall-length rack, covered in cream, white and light colored ruffles and bows and puffs. I flicked through them, a lot of the time with a disgusted look on my face. I was really ticked off. Alice could have at least told me if we were in the right shop or not. Some of these dresses were just pathetic. I thought wedding dresses were supposed to be special! I shorted as I quickly passed a dress with the same shape as a potato sack.

"Can I help you?" A small blond girl chirped, a couple of feet behind me.

I opened my mouth without thinking, and Alice slid in between the two of us. "No, we're right thanks. She knows what she's looking for."

"Just call me if you need anything." she said, giving me a small, slightly annoyed smile as she turned to help a woman into her dress.

"I'm the youngest here!" I said weakly, looking around at all of the woman studying themselves in the mirror.

"Yes, yes, yes, and the only one who surely knows that she'll be with the same man for ever and a day. _Keep looking!"_ Alice said, turning me back around to face the rack again.

I rolled my eyes and looked at the dresses with my eyes half closed. I was halfway through them when Nessie slid out of the change room closest to me and gave a few poses in the dress that had caught her attention earlier.

"Oh, that's beautiful on you!" Alice said, forgetting about me for a moment and rushing over to her niece. "Buy this and wait for a couple of decades, then get married again! You _have_ to!" The sad thing about this was Nessie actually _did_. Then told the two of us never to mention it to Jacob, or she'd have our heads.

"There's only twenty or so dresses left, Claire. You can do it." Alice said, clapping her hands as Nessie walked back into the change room.

I bit my lip and kept sorting through the dresses. There were several left when I squeaked and paused, my hand on the next coat hanger, ready to pull it across to join the other rejected dresses. "This is it! This is my dress!" I said excitedly, pulling it off the rack and holding it up for Alice. She clapped her hands slowly a couple of seconds.

"Has someone snapped out of her bad mood?" she asked, standing and joining me and Nessie, who was trying to get a better look over my shoulder.

The dress was floor-length and the perfect yellow - the yellow Quil was constantly trying to talk me into wearing. The top was corset-like with light yellow and cream beads lining the bust and left side, down to the skirt, which puffed out, complete with underlying frills and lace.

Without saying anything else to my companions, I walked carefully into the dressing room, watching the hem of it incase I accidently stepped on it.

It took me about five minutes to get it on as carefully as I could. Alice slipped into the small cubicle and helped lace me into it, then Nessie dragged me out to the large mirror to look at myself.

I smiled widely, unable to help myself. Perfect fit! I hitched it up in my hands and turned around to look over my shoulder. "Is this the one you saw?" I asked Alice in a whisper.

She nodded quietly and ran her hands over the material to check the fitting. "Look at the old woman to the right of you, Claire." she smirked.

I glanced quickly and smiled to myself. The 'old' woman Alice had reffered to wouldn't be any older than thirty, but was giving me a sour look as she held her dress up and the store clerk pinned bits and pieces of her dress to her.

I slid extremely ungracefully out of my dress and let Alice take care of it. She waited for me to get dressed again, then led me to the counter.

"It won't last. Look how young she is," the sour-looking woman murmured to her friend as the three of us walked past her. I looked over my shoulder and gave her a small smirk to let her know I'd heard and didn't care in the least.

* * *

**QPOV**

A loud, annoying chirp had me sitting upright off the foot of my bed and looking around in confusion. I grabbed my phone and couldn't help but smile when I saw Claire's name on the screen.

"Hello?"

_"You're awake!"_

"It's only...half past one." I frowned in confusion at the small clock on my desk. "Why aren't you in class?"

_"I'm in Seattle."_

"Why're you in Seattle?" I asked, falling back onto my bed and yawning widely.

_"I just bought my dress." _she said happily.

I frowned until it clicked. "Your...your wedding dress?"

_"Yes!"_

"Aw, that's so great." I smiled and closed my eyes, trying not to let my mind wander to pictures of Claire in wedding gowns. "What does it look like?"

She laughed quietly into the phone. _"You're not allowed to know."_

"Fine." I yawned again and she laughed again.

_"Go back to sleep, then. I'll bring you home some sushi."_

"I love you." I muttered quietly.

_"I love you, too."_

"I'll see you this afternoon."

_"I'll count the seconds."_ she said, blowing a raspberry at the end of her corny sentence.

I woke to a cold arm around my waist and tired brown eyes looking up, into my own.

"Good morning."

"How long've you been home?"

"Twenty minutes." she yawned widely and nestled into my side. "Your stomach's been keeping me awake. I put some pasta on."

"What did I do to deserve you?" I grinned, rubbing my eyes and sitting up slowly. "Did you have fun today?"

She nodded, but yawned again. "It would have been better if you'd been there. I missed you."

"Jake said I won't have to go on patrol tomorrow at all, so we have all day and night."

"Jake knows what he has to do to stay healthy." she muttered as she let me help her onto her feet.

* * *

**I hope it was okay with everyone! I'll try to get into my old routine and have the next chapter up next Tuesday!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	69. Chapter Sixty Eight

**Sorry I'm a week late, guys! I've been trying to write this for ages, and got it finished last night instead of studying for trials...you guys're more important anyway. :)**

**To make up for being so late, this chapter's longer than they usually are. Yay!**

**Thank yous to; ****AlyCullen320, HeyI'mSarah, twilightaddict323, guys in my head, inomniaperatus2, bookworm1545, LockDown, nwflgl, BookloverLaura, nessyness90210, MissingMommy, vampiremom1221, stormdog11, Fire and Ice 22, ALLIE, AndreaElizabeth94, laurazuleta18 and Sophie for reviewing since I posted the last chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 68**

**CPOV**

"How about the sixth?"

"No, it's going to _pour_ down that day!"

"The eleventh?"

"I'm still saying the twenty-third."

"Alice, I think that's a bit too close."

"You can do it! Besides, Claire will've graduated by then! And her next birthday will've passed..."

"I don't know..."

"Yeah, we haven't really organised anything yet."

"I know all the connections." she said, leaning forward and pulling a thick book off the coffee table in front of her. She flicked open to a certain page and held it up for the two of us to see. "Caterers. The same as Nessie and Jake's wedding. Music. This is an aspiring band that plays for well under what they're worth, so the two of you won't find anything wrong with that. Decorations. We've been using this warehouse for celebrations for well over thirty years. I love them."

"Well, if you can prove to us that it will all come together as early as you think it will, we might consider." Quil said, kissing the top of my head. "But I'm still in need of a tux, and we have no idea where we're spending our honeymoon."

"Ask Esme for the island." Nessie supplied as Jake dragged her into the kitchen. "You'd love it there."

"We're not going to all that trouble, Ness." I said, giving her a small smile. "It's for your family, not us. No matter how close we might seem at times...no, we're thinking of just going to a sunnier place in America. We need a bit of a change."

"Trust me, when it all comes down to it, I don't think the two of you will be worrying about what's happening outside the hotel." Alice said, rolling her eyes as I grinned to myself. "But I'll have something sorted for you," she saw I'd opened my mouth to decline, and continued. "A wedding present from the rest of the Cullens. Jasper and Rosalie were worrying about what to get you anyway, even though Emmett had some pretty artistic ideas...you don't want to know. Trust me.

"Speaking of Emmett, you've got him under the impression that he's marrying you, Claire. You'd better sort that out ASAP."

I bit my lip uncomfortably. Nessie and Jakes wedding had been amusing when I was the bride'smaid, but I'm sure it would be completely different if I were one of the two out the front.

"So, it's decided. The twenty-third it is." she said, looking highly satisfied with herself. "That gives the two of you a few months to get sorted. Quil, I'll take you shopping on Tuesday when you don't have patrol."

* * *

Not surprisingly, the day after I'd told Kelsi and Sally the dates, the whole school knew. People I'd never even spoken to smiled at me until they were close enough to ask exactly where I was having it, teachers shook their heads disapprovingly, while others hinted they expected an invitation, and Gigi Bronson and Lucas Seddant made it clear they were discussing my personal life whenever we were in the same room.

I scrunched my nose as Dyllan sat down with a thick sandwich next to me. "What?" he asked with his mouth full.

I sighed and turned away from him. "Onion. You have no tastebuds."

He chuckled quietly and wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders as the rest of our table filled.

"What do I wear, Claire? I need some suggestions, seeing as you were too rude to ask me to be your bride'smaid..." Kelsi said, mussing the back of her hand with her hair as Sally looked up to hear my answer, too.

"Something warm." I said immediately, knowing she wasn't really upset about not getting a high standard place at the wedding. "Because we're having it in the forest, so nothing that will be able to get ruined by the rain, either." - why should they know I was positive the weather was going to be cloudy, but dry? - "And nothing too fancy, because I have to look better than everyone else there." I was positive about something else - I was definitely _not_ going to look better than a few of my...paler guests.

"So, to other things." Sally said, leaning forward. "Graduation party. Are you all coming?"

"Where is it?" I asked her. I'd heard it was at five, the night of our graduation, but I hadn't been told where yet. Last time I'd asked, it was still undecided.

"Gianna's." Kelsi said, pretending to gag. I frowned.

Gigi Bronson; Super Bitch. Maybe she had convinced her parents to leave for the night so she and Lucas could do it in every room of the house, just like she'd been hoping since he first showed up at the school.

"I don't know if I'll go..." I said hesitantly.

"You have to go." Dyllan said to me seriously. "You can be away from Quil for that long. Trust me." I remembered Carter had left a couple of months earlier for a trip with his friends from church. Dyllan had tried to contain himself for the first day, but the last couple he was a wreck. He'd gone so far to convince himself he'd become religious before the next year's so he could go with them.

"Okay." I agreed as the five of them waited for me to speak.

* * *

Quil and I agreed it would be safer for me to leave the party an hour early...so I could get my sleep, of course. We got there half an hour late, and I looked out of the dark window for a while before he spoke in the darkness. "Want me to walk you to the door?"

"Naw, it's alright. I might not let you leave if you do."

"Which house is it?"

"Just a few up that way. I think. That's where all the cars're parked, anyway."

"Well...I'll see you at ten." he said slowly.

I sighed and turned around to wrap my arms around his shoulders. "I'll miss you."

He kissed my forehead softly, then leant across to open my door for me. "Make sure you keep an eye on the time."

"I won't be able to look away from the clock." I said, climbing out of the car and shutting the door hesitantly behind me.

I was only a few steps onto the dark sidewalk when the only shadow in front of me turned around.

"Claire," he said with a smirk in a lazy drawl. I looked at the ground in front of me and hoped Quil was still in his truck behind me. I'd heard it start up and move, but I didn't know how far he'd gotten. "Are we finishing what we started tonight? You've left me hangin' for a few years, y'know." He was giving what he probably thought was an inconspicuous look just over my shoulder, toward the road, so I suspected Quil hadn't gotten all the way onto the road yet. Thank God.

He must have been trying to hit as much as a nerve as possible, and I knew he would have by now, so I was wondering why he hadn't gotten any bites back from Quil yet. He mustn't have been able to see him properly, because he continued by reaching for my hand and pulling me slightly in his direction.

I didn't react to anything he said or did, just waited for Quil to snap. To be perfectly honest, I was slightly scared - not for myself, but for Lucas. Poor, poor Lucas. He should've known better after last time. He'd be lucky to leave without a broken arm like last time (or worse) if he kept it up.

Actually, I was highly surprised that Quil hadn't said or done anything yet. I was starting to get uncomfortable with Lucas so close to me. He had hardly tried to talk to me for years, and all because Quil - his interference in the past - was present, he was back to how he used to be.

"I'll walk you inside. We'll find an empty room." he said, just loud enough for a human on the street beside us to be able to hear in the empty street. He wrapped one of his arms around my back, his hand tightening on my waist, and I closed my eyes to keep from crying. He still creeped me out just as much as he always had.

I didn't hear anything behind us, but then Lucas' hand vanished as he gasped in pain. I opened my eyes and turned to them beside me, taking a couple of steps back so I was pressed up against the fence of one of the neighbor's gardens.

"Didn't I tell you I'd gladly tear your limbs off if you didn't stay away from her?" Quil's voice asked quietly, more dangerous than I'd ever heard it. I would have started running if I'd been on the bad side of it. As it was, I had goosebumps down my spine.

"She wasn't fighting back. She wants it as much as I do." Lucas spat, trying to pull his arm out of Quil's grasp. Quil's hands started shaking as he lifted Lucas off his feet, throwing him against the nearest tree. I watched Lucas' still form for a few seconds before I was sure he was unconscious, then at Quil, who was still watching him.

"That was for last time, as well. I'll get you for the rest of it when she's not around..."

"Quil," I jumped to my feet and grabbed his arm, pulling him to the fence and sitting back down on it. "You're going to get into trouble for that."

"He deserves it." he said angrilly.

"I agree." a voice said from behind us. I looked up to see a girl I recognised from my year. We'd never actually hung out before, but she seemed nice enough. She was really quiet, and I couldn't remember her name... "I heard what happened to you last time, Claire, and I didn't believe anything of it that he said. Kelsi started telling people the truth, though hardly anyone believed her. He kissed me, too." she gave me a small smile, then looked as though she wondered what she was doing there.

Quil gave me a superior look, as if the girl was agreeing to everything he'd done. I shook my head at him a couple of times and he pulled me into a gentle hug. "I'm sorry." he said quietly, running the hand that wasn't holding me to him down my hair. "He's just one of the couple of people that I can't stand thinking about, and he was really asking for it."

"I know he was." I said quietly, wrapping my arms around his neck. "But that doesn't mean that there won't be a heap of stories about it."

"That girl was the only other person around. I doubt she's going to tell anyone." he pointed out.

I looked at the unconscious Lucas for a few seconds, then back up to Quil, pulling away from the hug slightly. "How do I explain him passed out under that tree?"

He grabbed a discarded alcohol bottle from under a tree a few metres away and put it in Lucas' hand. "He was already drunk." he filled in, even though I knew that for sure. The smell of the alcohol on him from a minute before was still strong in my nose.

"Fine." I decided. "But I'll be telling people you were working and I had to walk down. It'll just be too obvious if people know you were here...and I doubt Lucas will be sure of anything after he wakes up."

"Okay." he agreed, giving me a long kiss before turning to his car. "An hour early?"

"Sixty-one minutes." I said, waving as his car turned and drove back in the direction of his house.

I sighed sadly and began dawdling my way to Gigi's house. Quil and I were hardly apart, except for when he was on patrol or working, and I wasn't used to being anywhere more public than the living room with Embry when he was elsewhere.

"Claire!" Kelsi called, Sally waving as the two of them ran from the porch of the house to greet me. I gave each of them tight hugs and followed them to the front of the small house, where they introduced me to a couple of students they'd been talking to from Forks high. Both of them guys, of course.

"So you're single." the shortest of the two, John, said, pointing a finger to Kelsi. "And you're not...how about you?" he asked, turning to me.

"Unfortunately not." I said, unable to help the smile that spread across my face as I held up my left hand.

The taller one, Michael, raised his eyebrows as Kelsi grabbed my hand to look at my ring for what was probably around the hundredth time. "You're engaged?"

"Mm-hm." I answered him distractedly as I looked at the ring on my finger with Kelsi.

"Don't you think it's a little early?" the other asked.

I shook my head. "No, definitely not. We've been together for ages." not exactly as a couple, but together, all the same.

"So you're just gonna get married and live together forever? Couples that age never last. It won't be as easy as you're planning, you know."

"I'm sure it'll be pretty easy." I said confidently.

Sally smiled widely. "He's her other half. You'll see when he comes to pick her up."

It seemed to take forever for the clock to pass four hours. I followed Kelsi and Sally around as they flirted with Michael and John from the porch, then Cory and Zach joined us, Cory keeping a posessive hand on Sally at all times, and then Dyllan showed up with Carter, making me almost ecstatic, because I hadn't seen Carter for ages. I squealed with him and gave him a tight squeeze as Kelsi, Sally, Cory and Zach gave him a confused look, trying to work out who he was. Dyllan hadn't exactly told them about him yet.

"Oh my God, I've heard so much about all of you." Carter said, smiling widely at them as he stood back next to his boyfriend.

"Who are you?" Sally asked, a little rudely as Zach nodded to get the response faster.

"Oh, guys, this is Carter." Dyllan said, putting his hand on Carter's shoulder. "My boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Sally spluttered as Cory and Zach's faces looked up to Dyllan's with the same slightly disturbed faces, looking very hard as they were trying to comprehend it. Kelsi just gave Carter a quick look over and nodded a couple of times.

"Yeah, he seems like your type enough, I suppose." she crossed her arms and gave Dyllan a bitter look. "Now, how come Claire found out before me?"

John and Michael were in their own conversation during our group's revelations, but stopped, Michael looking up with interest as Kelsi asked him to dance, her hand already on his. John opened his mouth, looking at me, but a familiar warm hand was on my shoulder in that instant, and his mouth closed again, his eyes sliding away from me as if he had never considered asking me to dance in the first place.

"Wanna dance?" Quil asked as I turned around to face him.

I grinned and nodded, jumping into his arms and kissing him roughly as he walked us out to where Kelsi and Michael were jumping around.

"Get a room!" Kelsi shouted a few minutes later as I let Quil's mouth go and looked down at her from my place, six feet and five inches up in the air. I tightened my legs around Quil's waist and rested my head on his chest as his arms wrapped protectively around me. I was satisfied with Michael and John's faces enough, and knew they were thinking the two of us would probably be together longer than they had been thinking as well.

Cory and Sally started dancing with us, then Dyllan and Carter, then Zach with a blonde girl I'd never seen before, who looked a couple of years younger than us. It was such a good last night to spend with all of the people I'd known for most of my life...some of which I'd probably never see again.

* * *

**QPOV**

The sixteenth of July came around once again, and Embry made sure almost everyone we knew was at Claire's house to celebrate. The cake was two times bigger than Trinity herslelf, and most of the people there were more interested in the food than the birthday girl.

Emily laughed and made noises to the laughing baby in her lap with Kim and Rachel as Emrby watched them from the table of food, while Seth and Oliver did their best to take his eyes off his Imprint.

My Imprint, however, hadn't been seen by anyone that morning, and I was listening closely to the light breathing coming from the window on the side of the house closest to us. Embry had had this party planned for a couple of weeks, and Claire thought it might be easier if she just stayed by herself in her original room while I was on a late patrol. I'd gotten home at about three in the morning, slept for a couple of hours, then decided it was too difficult trying to close my eyes again without her small form in my arms, so I'd watched television until Embry had woken and left our own house as early as he could.

"Quil, I'm sure she wouldn't mind waking up to you being there." Marylyn said as I sighed heavily.

"No, I'm talking to you guys." I insisted. I hated being a bore to people, and I was trying to get on the best terms with Marylyn, even though I knew she already loved me like her own son.

"No, you're really not." Sue laughed quietly, her hand laced in her lap with Charlie's, who was deep in conversation with Nessie and Jake.

I gave each of them a small smile, then stood speechlessly and made my way to Claire's room as quietly as possible.

She was hanging half out of her hammock, her feet thickly socked and her hair covering most of her face. I chuckled noiselessly and picked her up as gently as I could, cradling her as I moved us both down to the matress under her hanging bed. She opened her eyes a few seconds after I sat down, then closed them again, nestling into my chest. "I'm so tired..."

"Everyone's outside, Sleeping Beauty." I told her, rubbing my thumb into her thigh. "And I've been waiting for you to wake up. There's only so much of Oliver and Lisa's talk I can take."

"I haven't seen either of them in ages." she murmured, opening her eyes a tiny amount and yawning. "Ugh, why am I so tired? You think today would be one of the days I was most awake...we didn't see each other after six last night!"

I didn't say anything to that, hoping the guys outside were preoccupied in what they were doing and not giving the two of us a thought.

She yawned again and rubbed her eyes. "Alright, I'm awake."

"Good morning." I said, kissing her gently. She smiled and sat more upright in my arms, rolling over so she was slightly facing me.

"I went back to sleeping in my underwear..."

"Trust me, I noticed." I said, looking away as I reached for a blanket and draped it over her. She pouted and kissed my neck slowly. "Claire,"

"Mm?"

"Everyone's outside."

"They have their own conversations to keep. They won't listen in..." she said, sitting up straighter and wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

"You're really loud..." she paused and sat back down, taking my hands from her waist and holding them in her own.

"Not _that_ loud..."

"I suppose you could get Embry's opinion..." I craned my neck to look out the window. Sure enough, Embry had turned to face the window and jokingly covered his ears. Claire shook her head and stood up. "Fine. He can find his own place from now on...I might just have to practise my screaming." she grabbed a dress and jacket and marched into the bathroom while I sat where I was, trying not to laugh.

The sun kept slipping behind clouds from time to time, but mostly it was shining faintly down on us, giving us a small taste of the summer we were enduring. I watched it shine of Claire's long, black hair as she laughed with Seth and Jared. She turned around and smiled at me before answering their question.

"What're you thinkin' about?" Emily asked me, filling her plate up with pastries she'd made and brought. She handed me one and leant against the table with me.

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"Yes you are." she nudged me with her elbow and turned her attention to Claire, too. "You're lucky, Quil. Both of you are."

"Yeah, she's beautiful." I said softly, smiling to myself.

Emily smiled too and reached up to pat my shoulder. "Are you wishing she was seventeen?"

"Hm? Oh, not all that much. I mean, it's just the wedding...it's not really going to change anything for us."

"Except for the small fact that you'll be able to call her your _wife_." she said, grinning. She was obviously enjoying this. "You can get your own house all to yourself..." I started picturing the things she was saying and had to try hard to stay in the present. "And you remember how beautiful she was at Jake and Renesmee's wedding...imagine at your own."

"Okay, I'm kind of wishing." I admitted softly, having a flashback of her at the last wedding we'd attended.

"Thought you would be." she ate for a few moments before speaking again. "I'll just go have a word with Toby." she sighed, looking over at her son as Hannah screamed at him and kicked him in the shin, the whole party filling with angry shrieks of; "I wish we weren't related, you _jerk!"_

"What were you two talking about?" Claire asked, skipping over to me from her last companions.

"Nothing important. Wedding stuff."

She smiled and kissed my arm, quiet for a few minutes. "There's a month and three days until my seventeenth birthday...I'm sure Alice and I would have discussed a few things by then."

"So not the traditional Quileute wedding?" I asked her, worrying a little over my family's reactions if they showed up at an enormous white wedding that looked as though millions of dollars had been spent of it...pictures from my parent's wedding showed about ten people at a small cottage surrounded by trees.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure she won't go overboard." Claire assured me, pulling back and taking a step away from me. "It's our wedding, too."

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**So, I'll be working away to get the next chapter ready before next Tuesday. Wish me luck!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	70. Chapter Sixty Nine

**Oh my gosh, I'm on time! And I'm soooo proud of myself for actually getting finished a reasonably-lengthed chapter in time!**

**I'm on holidays! Yay! Today I climbed up, onto my roof and stole a whole heap of mulberries growing over my fence from my neighbour's tree. Shh! They were super yummy, but my hands're still purple. :( Having fun, though!**

**Thank yous to these fantabulous people for reviewing since I posted the last chapter: ****bookworm1545, Robow, MissingMommy, laurazuleta18, twilightaddict323, guys in my head, AndreaElizabeth94, vampiremom1221, MayFairy, flaM1nGo, BookloverLaura, allgirlsloveavampire, lilly-loo, nessyness90210 and nwflgl!**

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**Chapter 69**

**CPOV**

We'd decided to take advantage of the almost clear sky, and made our way into the forest as the sun started setting. Even though Quil was supposed to be on patrol, Jacob didn't really have anything to say about my being with him. Nessie was around from time to time nowadays, when things seemed to be getting quieter with the pack.

"Stop here." I said after a ten minute run, pulling my fingers through Quil's fur as his legs slowed. He lowered closer to the ground and I carefully climbed off his warm back, making my way to a big tree. He sat himself under it and I rested against him, rubbing the top of his head.

"The sky's so pretty..." I murmured. He nodded his huge head once, and the two of us waited for the sky to darken before anything else happened. I don't really know how long we were sitting there, but I could hardly see my surroundings as I got lost in my serene thoughts of just about absolutely nothing. He sighed and rose to his four feet, giving me a little warning to get out of the way. He walked a short distance away from me and phased, returning with a pair of old shorts on.

"I don't know if I want you here for much longer." he said protectively, bending down to take my hands and pulling me to my feet. "There's nothing wrong, but things can happen out of no where here. We'll start walking back now.

The two of us spent a long while walking back to the edge of the forest, then to his house. When my legs started getting sore, he seemed to know, and carried me some of the way. Embry was home when we got there, and greeted us quietly from where he was watching television on the couch. I murmured a goodnight and Quil took me to his room, wrapping the blanket around me and laying next to me, his arms around my waist as he kissed my hair.

"What do you want for your birthday?" he asked after a little while.

"Nothing. I don't want anything." I told him immediately. It wasn't a secret that money wasn't easy to come by around here. "A nice day with you would be fine."

"I have to get you something." he insisted.

I shook my head. "No, you don't." I decided to explain myself after a few seconds. "I think we should save up all of the money we can for the wedding. I don't want something huge, but I want something our friends will remember."

He picked up a lock of my hair and twisted it through his fingers for a few minutes while my eyes were closed, focusing on our future. For some reason, in the visions I was having of us getting further into our relationship, and some day the two of us getting older, I couldn't see myself as the person I was now. It was a different Claire...a wiser one, with better ideas of what she wanted. Quil seemed just as happy to be with her, but I didn't know how I felt about changing so much about myself so I was almost a different person.

"Quil?" I asked softly without opening my eyes.

"What is it, baby?" he asked gently, letting go of my hair and taking my hand instead.

"Will you tell me...if I change?" I asked him.

It was a while before he answered. "What do you mean?"

I finally opened my eyes and gave him a long look while I tried to decide what to say. "It's just...getting married and finding a house of our own...having a family of our own. I'm sure I'm going to change into someone different going through all of that, see? And I don't think it's a bad thing, but I'm kind of enjoying being teenage Claire at the moment...so if I start acting like someone completely different...would you just make sure I get the message?"

"You'll never be anyone but my Claire." he said softly, kissing my forehead and pulling me closer to me. "And no matter what decisions you make, you'll always be absolutely perfect to me, okay?" I nodded, and he continued. "If you start to act a little different, that's okay. You'll just be going with what you feel right with. But you'll never change, 'll always be perfect."

I kissed him softly and closed my eyes. It was half an hour before I realized I was concentrating too hard on his arms around me and his chest under me and his quiet breathing above me to fall asleep, and I started focusing more on nothing than I had been...

* * *

**QPOV**

Embry was still asleep when Claire woke up. I sung her a quiet Happy Birthday, then got out of bed to make her pancakes, fresh from the bottle. After ruining the first one and putting it on my own plate, I decided to cut up some fruit, just in case.

Her light footsteps sounded in the kitchen behind me, and I turned, smiling, then shook my head. "Go in and put some clothes on."

"We're only going to be a few minutes out here, aren't we? And it's not everyday that Alice gets me underwear this pretty..." she said, looking down at herself.

"Yes, I'm sure Alice was thinking purely of you when she bought you your birthday present this year."

She giggled and flipped the pancake infront of me, perfect first time. "She did mention something about you when she gave it to me," She turned quickly and hitched her right leg around me, her foot on the handle of the draws behind my leg. "But I can't remember her exact words..."

"Do you want me to burn your pancakes?" I asked, trying to concentrate on her face.

She grinned and drew a line over my hip bone. "I don't think I'd mind all that much." she turned and gave me a long glance over her shoulder and started skipping to my room, but I caught up with her halfway through the living room, caught her and trapped her between me and the wall. I wasn't expecting things to go too far in the living room of my house, so kept her close to the kitchen in case the pancakes actually did catch on fire. With my luck, the house would be gone from a simple distraction within ten minutes.

"I think...this is better...than another birthday present...anyway..." she said, her fingers attempting to pull out my hair as I kissed her neck. I slid my hands up her thighs as an annoyed sigh came from behind us and the door opened next to Claire.

"Happy Birthday.'' Embry said quietly, obviously trying to get out of the house as quickly as he could. The door closed immediately after his words and Claire pulled back with a small smile on her face.

"Poor Embry. I'm kind of taking his space here, aren't I?"

"Not at all...Embry and I didn't get up to anything like _this_ before we were together." I said breathlessly.

She unlocked her legs from around my waist and slid down the wall, laughing lightly. "I should hope not." she stood there for a few seconds, then looked toward the pan containing what should have been her pancake. Instead, there was a thin cloud of billowing smoke rising from it. She moved quickly to the pan and put the flat, black circle in the bin. "I'll cook."

"It's your birthday." I said, taking the spatula out of her hand.

She took it back from me and looked toward the half-cut food on the counter. "We'll have a job each. Get finished in half the time.

* * *

**CPOV**

"So what did you and Quil get up to for your birthday?" Alice asked me. It was the twentieth of August, and I hadn't seen Nessie or her the day before, so they'd invited me over during the time Quil was patrolling.

"Not much, actually." I said honestly. "He had a lunch reservation, but we didn't leave the apartment at all..."

"No wonder you can barely keep your eyes open." Nessie snorted.

I scowled at her and smiled to myself. "No, we got up to things other than..._that_...we watched _Pocahontas_, actually."

"Wow, flashback to ten years ago!" Alice said, spreading her hands infront of her face while her eyes got wide.

I laughed quietly. "I couldn't remember how sad it was!" I said, getting serious for a second. "Anyway, I'm going to remember that I'm only a year off being an adult and get back to things more important than children's movies."

"Like the wedding?" Alice asked, leaning forward with interest.

I grinned and nodded. "That was one of the things I actually _didn't _think about yesterday. Is Emmett still bothering yo-"

"Yes, he is." a deep voice said from the doorway. I looked up, alarmed, as Nessie and Alice rolled their eyes together.

Emmett had his muscled arms crossed over his chest as he leant against the door frame, giving me a long look. "And I've made the decision myself. I'm going to marry the two of you, whether you like it or not."

"Oh, really?" I asked, standing from my spot and raising an eyebrow. "It's my wedding, Mister, so I'd suggest you be a little nicer, or you won't be invited."

"Aw, c'mon, Claire!" he said, appearing right in front of me suddenly and shaking my shoulders gently. "You know you want me there! In front of the two of you! Why would you want to share something like that with a stranger? You've always loved your Uncle Emmett!"

"Fine," I sighed, giggling as he lifted me in a tight hug. Quil and I had already agreed to let Emmett have another share of the spotlight at a wedding other than his own. It was more the fact that Emmett would never let us live it down than that we really wanted him there to share it with us. Easier on our own shoulders, Quil had said.

"Thank you!" he said, mussing my hair and placing me back on the ground. "I've got some great ideas already. You won't be disappointed, Claire!"

"Nothing to embarrassing!" I warned him, my eyebrows raising in worry. He only laughed and left the room without so much as a blur behind him. I sighed and began walking back to Nessie and Alice. "I shouldn't have said yes." I groaned. "Oh, Alice? You haven't gotten anything organised for the honeymoon yet, have you?"

"No," her smile faded. "Why?"

"Well, we've spoken to Peggie over the phone and she won't be able to make it to the actual wedding, so we were thinking about staying in California for a couple of weeks. That way Payton won't have to spend extra money on flights back here while he's staying with Sam. We'll have lunch with them or something." I said, reciting the plans Quil and I had made the day before. My grandmother and cousins thought it was a perfect idea.

"Okay, I'll tell Jasper to start scouting for nice places in California when he gets home." she said easily, clapping her hands once. "Next; bachelorette party."

"I don't want one. We just don't have that kind of money."

"But Emmett, Jasper and Jacob have started planning Quil one!" Alice whined, kicking her feet in annoyance.

"Does Quil have any idea whatsoever?" I asked her, already knowing the answer.

She shook her head. "Jacob's using the excuse of wanting to talk with him about patrolling before he starts the shift Collin's taking. There's going to be a few of the guys switching for small portions of the patrol time so everyone gets a chance at being at the party."

I sighed and looked at my feet. They'd already gone to a lot of trouble for Quil, but as far as I knew, Alice didn't have anything planned for me yet. "Fine, but I don't want one."

"Okay," Alice said immediately as Nessie gave her a questioning stare. "We'll take you out for dinner, then."

There had been a few times in my life where I had been angry at myself for trusting Alice when it was obvious I shouldn't have. Seriously. A two-year-old would have been able to make decisions better than myself in some of these circumstances. This was one of them, for sure.

Two nights before the wedding I found myself curling my hair, packing on more make-up than I was used to, and dressing in something Alice had sent over. I was told Alice and Nessie were taking me out to a fancy restaraunt. I wore the shiny black heels I'd gotten for my birthday a couple of years before and double-checked my make-up before leaving the bathroom as my phone alerted me of Alice and Nessie being outside. I ran out of the bathroom carefully, worrying myself on the carpet of Quil's apartment, and looked around botheredly for my purse.

"Shit!"

"What's...wrong...?" Quil appeared in the hallway in a pair of jeans, a wet towel in his hands as he scruffed it through his hair. "Where're you going again?"

"Alice is taking me out for dinner." I said, moving to him quickly and standing a foot in front of him. He was barefoot, and with my heels on, I was just at the start of his neck.

"I don't know if I want to let you out of the house when you're looking as hot as that." he said, dropping the towel from his hands and letting his fingers tighten themselves on my hips as he pulled me into him.

I smiled and kissed his neck, only having to stretch up a little. "I'll try to get home early...and hope you're back. Don't work too hard on patrol."

He sighed as I pulled away from him and watched me walk to the door. "Have fun." he said, biting his lip as I closed the door behind me.

I ran out as quickly as I could in the freezing wind, the two streams of light hitting the road in front of the car the only think visible to me. I squinted through the dark at the car. From here it looked like...Emmett's Jeep? Why the hell was Alice taking the Wrangler to dinner? The horn beeped twice, and I grinned as I climbed up the side to open the back door and slide in, pulling it shut behind me before turning around.

"Oh, Alice." I said, shaking my head at the sight now in front of me.

Alice was in the driver's seat, as expected, but sitting to her right wasn't Nessie, but Esme, who had turned around to give me her motherly smile. My best friend was seated next to me, her blond aunt on the other side of her, and Bella was in the back of the truck behind me. So this is why we were in the Wrangler...

"Everyone's coming out for dinner." I said, smiling uneasily. I was beginning to think I was missing something.

"Almost." Alice said as we sped down the street. "We're not exactly going out to dinner." I opened my mouth to shout something very unacceptable at her, and she continued. "Don't worry - we'll feed you. Before we get to the club."

"Club?"

"Claire, you're getting married in two days, and you've never done anything outrageous. It's time you became a woman!" Alice said loudly.

"I'm only seventeen!" I said, trying to reason with her.

"That's why we had this made up." she said, flashing me a fake ID. "Especially for tonight. You won't regret it."

"Don't even bother, Claire." Rosalie said, surprising me. It was always seemed odd when Rose spoke directly to me, but I welcomed her words. "She'll never give in. She's had this planned for weeks."

"We'll get some alcohol into you, and then it won't seem like such a big deal." Nessie laughed as I shook my head.

"That's why we're doing this two nights early! So I won't be hungover for my wedding!"

"Point two; Claire." Bella muttered with a smirk in her voice behind me. "You're not gonna be able to keep up tonight, Alice."

"I'm not drinking." I said, crossing my arms stubbornly and looking out the window.

Alice laughed, closing her eyes and flinging her head back, despite the fact that the road in front of us was now getting busier. "Whatever you say, Claire."

* * *

**Chapter 70 will definitely be up on Tuesday, unless something really drastic happens and I can't make it. There's a 99.6% chance you can count on it, though. :)**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	71. Chapter Seventy

**I'm back a day early! Yay! Just for stormdog11, because she's going through a bit of a tough time right now. I hope it gets better! :)**

**Thank yous to: ****Charm1997, LydLyd, bookworm1545, guys in my head, Robow, vampiremom1221, Obsethed (I really like your name, as well!), AndreaElizabeth94, stormdog11, flaM1nGo, BookloverLaura, jenizzleoffdachain, laurazuleta18, allgirlsloveavampire, Spannieren and Original-twifan123 for reviewing!**

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* * *

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**Chapter 70**

I was hesitant about entering the building from the second I climbed out of the truck, Esme offering me her icy arm as I struggled with my heels. Nessie linked her arm with mine and steered me inside, just behind Alice and Rosalie, who looked as thought they'd been there before.

"I'm not drinking!" I repeated, having to shout at my companions over the music, even though they'd probably be able to decipher my words if I'd said them in a whisper.

Alice narrowed her eyes at me, as if she were waiting for me to correct myself and tell her exactly what I wanted to drink, but Nessie leant forward slightly so I could hear what she had to say easier.

"I'll tell you what," she began, Alice's smile growing widely behind her. She must have just seen what Nessie was about to propose. "Every time you drink something, I'll do the same." by this point I was listening so closely the heavy music surrounding us seemed like the annoying sounds you'd hear in a hotel elevator. I'd seen Nessie drink water before, but I could only remember one occasion where that had actually happened, and she'd ended up spitting it out in the sink, claiming she had been unable to swallow it. Apparently it was okay for her to drink, but she much preferred blood. She said it was like me sitting down and eating a huge bowl of onion, which I had immediately gagged at.

Still...Nessie playing a part in my capture and bringing me here made me want her to suffer, just a little bit. I accepted and sat myself on a stool at the bar, a little nervous at knowing I was doing something illegal.

Alice passed the two of us matching drinks, and I stared at the small glass in front of me for a while before picking it up in my hand.

"Like this, Claire." Alice said, motioning drinking it all in one go.

Nessie and I stared at each other before we brought the glassed to out lips, our mouths twisting. "Sure you want to go this far to get me drunk?" I asked her quickly.

"Positive." she said, smirking at me before emptying the glasses' contents into her mouth. I did the same, and the two of us gasped and put our hands to our mouths as Bella and Esme laughed loudly.

"Alice, I think you should have one, too." I said, sounding like I was choking as Alice rolled her eyes.

"No chance. But I won't do that to you again. I'll get you something different."

"No, that's enough for me, thanks." I said, putting my hand out to slide off the chair.

Nessie caught me and shook her head. "Stay right where you are. We're doing this."

"You're just putting yourself through all of this unnecessary pain." I said, shrugging. Reverse psychology never worked against Nessie, but it was worth a try, anyway.

The next drink I had I actually enjoyed. It was kind of like juice made from a berry I'd never tasted. It was pretty, too. The top was pink, and it blended into orange further down the tall glass. I chewed on both of the straws as I slowly drank the whole thing, then nodded when Alice asked me if I wanted another one.

Nessie traded hers for something bright red, stating she might be able to trick some part of herself into thinking it was blood. She didn't look satisfied with it at all, but I think she enjoyed it more than the first thing we tried.

"I think that's enough for Claire just now." Rosalie said, helping me to my feet.

I smiled and hugged her for helping me, letting three of them take me to the dance floor with them.

* * *

**QPOV**

It was two in the morning, and I was starting to get extremely worried. No, I was past that. They were just going out to dinner! I had no idea how they could have taken so long at a restaraunt!

I'd tried calling Claire four times with no answer, but she hadn't answered, so I decided I had reason to be worried about her.

I was just about to leave the house to look for her when a thud followed by familiar giggling came to me through the door.

I frowned at the sound of a number of keys scraping against the wall and walked quickly to the door, pulling it open and catching Claire in my arms as she stumbled forward. "Surprize!" she shouted, throwing her arms up, one of them carrying her shoes while the other had her keys and purse.

"You're drunk." I said, wrinkling my nose at the strong smell of alcohol on her.

She nodded and giggled again, her hair falling over her face. I held her upright and tucked her hair behind her ear as she stared up at me with a wide grin. "Did you have anything...to drink?" she asked, slurring her words.

I laughed, unable to help myself and nodded. "Unintentionally the first time. Jared and Paul thought it'd be hilarious to spike my drink, but I've recovered from anything in my system."

"Oh, yeah, with that amazingly talented bod of yours...you know, Quilly, healing yourself's not the only amazing thing about that body..." she said, wrapping her arms around me and pouting her lips.

"I know what you're trying to do."

She sighed and her eyes saddened. "I know I said we should stop for eleven days before the wedding, but we stopped for...ten? I think...nine? I don't know. Eight? Anyway, I think that's enough! And the honeymoon will still be special, because we'll be in California! Plus, I probably won't remember anything from tonight in the morning, so it willl be like you're the only one doing anything..."

I shook my head as her voice got quieter and steered her toward the bathroom. "How about you have a shower, and I'll wait for you, then you can get in your pajamas and we'll go to sleep. You don't want to wake up sleepy. Knowing you, you won't get any sleep tomorrow night."

"Only because you won't be in the same bed as me. I can never sleep without you." she whined, clinging to my shirt.

I turned the shower on for her and walked to the door as she watched me leave. "I'll be waiting for you to finish, okay? Don't forget to wash your face and brush your teeth."

She nodded, giving me a thumbs-up, and took her shirt off, aiming it at the sink before throwing it in. I shook my head and closed the door behind me, waiting for a few seconds before making my way to my bedroom.

Claire drunk...well, it was definitely something knew. I chuckled to myself as I sat at the foot of her bed, waiting for her to finish her shower. The water was off after ten minutes, and I heard her get dressed in the pajamas she'd left there this morning slowly, bumping into things a fair few times.

The bathroom door finally opened and she slowly made her way into my room, giving me a long look before skipping to the bed and falling over backwards. "I'm not tired." she said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"I am." I said honestly. I just wanted her to fall asleep so I could hold her and sleep myself.

"Are you sure?" she asked, crawling up to sit next to me. "We're not doing anything tomorrow. We could sleep all day!"

"I think we'd just better go to sleep now." I said, trying not to laugh as she swayed to one side, collapsing on her pillow. "You're tired."

"No, I'm not." she yawned, frowning at me. "But I'll sleep anyway. If you hug me. I'm cold."

I smiled and wrapped my left arm around her, reaching my right out to turn off the lamp. "Goodnight, Claire-bear."

"Nighty-night, Quilly." she murmured, her hand hitting my ear a few times before it fell back at her side.

* * *

A small squeak came from my room, and I looked in its direction before standing from the couch and walking quickly to Claire.

"Something wrong, Gorgeous?"

"My head..." she murmured, her eyes closed as she frowned. Her right hand found the side of her forehead, and she rubbed it slowly, her eyebrows lowering in pain. "Stupid Alice..."

"And Nessie."

"And Nessie." she repeated, opening her eyes and looking toward me. "How was last night?"

"Ordinary. I think the guys thought it was a lot better than it was. How about your's?"

"I don't remember." she whined. "I remember dancing for a bit, but then I went back and had more of that pink shit, and then I screamed at some guy and hit him in the head and that's all I can remember."

"What guy?"

"I have no idea. I think he tried to dance with me?"

"Can't blame him for that."

"We're getting married tomorrow." she said seriously, her eyes squinting as she looked over to me again. "You're supposed to be angry at things like that." she stared at her feet for a few seconds before pulling them under the blankets and sniffed. "We're getting married tomorrow!" she whined.

I raised my eyebrows at her outburst. Wasn't she supposed to be happy about that as well? Instead of standing by the door and asking her too many questions with her head hurting, I walked cautiously to the bed, put my legs on either side of her, and pulled her into my chest. "What's wrong?"

"This is the last day we get to spend together before we're married, and I have a headache I can barely think through!" she moaned, rolling over and hugging my waist. "I'm sorry..."

"I didn't have anything planned." I said, immediately cancelling our plans for lunch. "Spending the day in the living room's fine with me."

"Thank you." she said, giving me a sad look. "I really, really don't deserve you."

"Don't worry," I grinned. "You can make it up to me tomorrow night."

She rolled her eyes, then frowned at the pain. "I'd better feel normal by tomorrow night, or Alice's gonna get it."

Claire ended up falling alseep again, so I snuck out to the kitchen and grabbed my phone, dialing Alice's number.

_"Hello?"_

"What did you do to my Imprint?" I slightly growled, sitting on the counter and resting my feet on the draw.

She giggled quietly. _"Yeah, it doesn't take much to get her drunk, does it?"_

"So you didn't give her much?"

_"No, she drank heaps! Could keep the last couple of glasses out of her hands. Oh, and you'd be proud of her, Quil. Some guy came onto her, and she hit him in the side of the head."_

That's when I started taking notice of the words she'd said before. "What do you mean 'came onto her'?"

_"You know...he pulled her out to the dancefloor and put his hands all over her."_

I bit my lip and glared at the bottom of the door. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

_"You're not going out to track him down and give him a physically harming warning." _she began reasonably. _"Nothing happened. Claire stopped it before he even spoke to her, and you have to stay home and take care of her!"_

"She's asleep. I had to cancel lunch because she can't do anything but complain about her head. She cried because she thinks she's ruining the last day we have together before we get married."

_"I thought you wouldn't mind if she had a litle bit to drink." _she murmured quietly.

"A little bit." I repeated with a chuckle.

_"Well, I have to go take care of a few things, Quil. Or you're not getting married tomorrow...she'll be feeling a little better by four-thirty. Take her out then."_

"Thanks, Alice." I said bitterly.

_"No, I love _you_ more." _she sung as I hung up the phone.

When four-thirty finally came, Claire trodded off to the bathroom while I waited impatiently for her to have her shower. She walked slowly back out in an old towel and went straight to the cupboared, looking through it for a few minutes before sighing and making her way onto the couch beside me. "I'm hungry."

"I think Embry ate all our food. I'm hungry, too."

"Did you want me to make something?"

"No, it's fine. We'll go out. You go get dressed."

It took half an hour, and the two of us were dressed and ready, Claire still too quiet to be herself. "Where're we going?"

"I know this is probably the wrong thing to say when we've put on our best clothes and...I'm wearing heels, but I really feel like McDonalds."

"Thank God," I started, smirking at the surprized look on her face. "I wouldn't be able to handle waiting over an hour for our meal at some fancy place in Port Angeles."

"If you're not up to this, we can just get the food and go home." I told her as she sighed against the side of the truck once we'd parked the car.

"No, I'm fine." she said, smiling as she grabbed my hand. "Let's go. I'm starving."

The girl in the line beside us continually looked over her shoulder at me in what she probably thought was an inconspicuous way. It must have been as noticable to me as it was to Claire, because she made sure we kept close together, her left hand in obvious places on my chest and shoulder so the girl could get the idea quicker.

She didn't order as much as she normally would have, despite how hungry she claimed to be. I went to the table she trodded off to with no comment, then watched her as she took her small percentage of the meal and chewed slowly on her fries.

"What's wrong, Claire?"

"Hm?" she took a long drink and looked up at me with confused eyes. "Do I seem like there's something wrong with me? ...other than the obvious wooziness that is clearly Alice's fault..."

"You ordered a small cheeseburger meal." I said seriously.

She sighed and took another drink. "Yeah, well, I'm getting married tomorrow. I want to try and stay exactly my size in case I somehow put on a heap of weight today and can't fit into my dress."

"If you got any skinnier people would think you looked gross." I tried to reason with her.

"Would _you_ think I looked gross?"

"Probably not." I admitted. "But I'm very fond of your figure now. And I don't think you're going to miraculously get a stomach by tomorrow morning."

"You never know." she said, grimmacing as her stomach protested at the lack of food she had given it in the last twenty-four hours.

"We're not leaving until you eat something more than that."

"I'm not eating anything else."

"What do you want, Claire-bear?" I said, taking her arm and sitting her back in her seat as she tried to pick up her food to leave.

She pouted and frowned at the table. "Get me whatever. I don't care."

* * *

**CPOV  
**

I felt too full, but I hadn't been able to even think about standing from the table with Quil sitting and watching me eat. His truck stopped out the front of my mother's house and I crossed my arms and stared at the floor of his car.

"I don't want to get out." I said stubbornly.

He sighed and stopped the truck running, unclipping his seatbelt and taking the hand that was clenched under my left arm. "I don't want you to, either."

"I'm not going to see you until tomorrow!" I whined, grabbing his shirt with both hands and burying my face into his chest. "Do you even know how much trouble I had trying to sleep without you? I'm gonna have the biggest bags in history tomorrow!"

"Hey," he grabbed my face and kissed the corner of my eye. "You'll be able to sleep. And then, as soon as you know it, Nessie'll be picking you up and taking you to Alice, and I'll be waiting for you, okay?"

I gave him a long, depressed look and kissed him softly. "Fine."

"Good girl." he pulled me into a tight hug and held me for a couple of minutes, letting me sniff pathetically into his shoulder. "I'll miss you, Claire-bear."

"You'd better not be late tomorrow." I said warningly, watching him as I got out of the car, all the way to the front door. I waved as his truck left my street, then opened the door quickly to get inside. I hardly noticed the cold until Quil was out of my sight.

"I was worrying about you." my mother said from her place on the couch, Trinity babbling away in her lap.

I lifted my sister into my arms as she reached out for me and kissed her forehead, wondering when she had started getting so big. "Hey, Trinity."

She made a noise that slightly sounded like my name, I guess and did her best at giving me a kiss on my cheek. I took a seat next to my mother and tightened my arms around my baby sister, leaning into my mother's side. "I'm getting married tomorrow."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around it." my mother laughed.

"Are you sure you're okay with it?" I asked, lifting my head off her shoulder to get a better look at her face. "I'm only seventeen..."

"But you know exactly what you want, and I'm positive you and Quil're never gonna get sick of each other. Not to mention, I'm sick of trying to explain how Quil's related to us. It's gonna be a lot easier just to say my 'Son in Law.'"

I grinned and warpped my only free arm around her shoulders, kissing her cheek. "Thanks, Mom."

"Go and get ready for bed." she said, squeezing me one final time before taking back her youngest daughter. "You've got a big day tomorrow."

"I love you, Mom."

"Love you, too, Sweetie."

I brushed my teeth and washed my face slowly, trying to calm myself down for sleep. Every time I thought about the day coming, I'd get butterflies in my stomach and felt kind of nervous. I knew I was completely ready to get married, but I wasn't looking forward to all people's eyes on me as I did something I had no idea about.

I changed into one of Quil's old shirts and my sweat pants and some thick socks because my feet were starting to sting from the cold.

My mom was snoozing on the couch when I left the bathroom, so I opened my door as quietly as I could and slipped inside quickly, shutting it carefully behind me.

I was walking to my hammock when I saw the shadow on my matress out of the corner of my eye and jumped, gasping loudly.

Quil chuckled quietly. "I thought you were going to miss me." he was already changed into his pajamas.

"I thought we weren't going to see each other tonight."

"We already have. And we only agreed on not seeing each other tomorrow before the wedding, so I'm not breaking any rules. I'll be gone before you wake up." he opened his arms and smirked as I bounced over and made myself comfortable between them and my comforter and pillows.

"This is nice."

"I agree."

I kissed him once more, then obeyed as he told me to go to sleep. I didn't have to worry about how long it was going to take me, after all. Much too soon I was slipping out of the comforting embrace of his arms and into my confusing dreams...

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**Hope you liked it! Next chapter will be up next Tuesday, as usual.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	72. Chapter Seventy One

**Sorry I'm a day late. I'm really not happy with this chapter. I just rushed the whole thing. Sorry. Hope you like it anyway.**

**Thanks to: ****vampiremom1221, bookworm1545, Charm1997, Asha123, LydLyd, ShadowPix, Original-twifan, MayFairy, laurazuleta18, Roamin-Tigeress, guysinmyhead, 0bsethed, christy86, nessyness90210, stormdog11, Robow, AndreaElizabeth94, dreaming-of-jace, weesh, spannieren, puppy124, , nwflgl, nwflgl, Loverofgoodstories27 and twilightaddict323 for reviewing! :)**

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**Chapter 71**

He was gone when I woke halfway through the night. The spot next to me was still a little warm, so it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes before, but I still felt like I'd been alone the whole night.

It took me a while to fall back to sleep, but I did at last, and it seemed like five minutes later Nessie was calling my name.

"What?" I asked grumpily, rolling away from her and frowning.

"We're going now." she grabbed my wrists and pulled me upright. "What; are you gonna keep Quil waiting? Your mom and sister're already in my car. Let's _go_."

I washed my face and brushed my teeth, not caring about my hair or anything else. Alice could handle it all, just like she'd offered.

"Thanks..." I mumbled, still half-asleep as Nessie opened the back door of her small white car and let me slip in. She closed the door and got in her seat at a very human pace, starting small talk with my mother as she drove out of our street.

Trinity pulled at my hair and made noises all the way to Nessie and Jake's house, and I was really relieved to get out of the car and have my own space for a couple of minutes. Alice motioned for me to get inside as quickly as I could, so I slowed my pace and wandered, annoyed into the house. I was always in a bad mood when I'd woken up without Quil.

"Turn that frown upside-down, Claire! You're getting married today!" Alice said excitedly, wrapping her icy hand around mine and pulling me to the bathroom. I looked over my shouler at Jacob.

_"Help me!" _I mouthed at him. He just smirked and shook his head, his eyes slipping back to the television. "Jerk..." I muttered under my breath.

"Don't worry," Alice said, pushing me down on a seat in the corner of the abnormally large bathroom in Nessie and Jake's small house. "He's only got a few seconds until he has to get ready and leave."

"I hope you know what you're doing." I said warily as she grabbed numerous compact cases out of a large bag and set them down on the counter. "And should I be putting on my dress before you do all this? I don't want to wipe it all off when I pull it on."

"And I'm sure you don't want to get excess make-up all over your dress either, do you?"

"Your point has been made."

"We'll dress you before you get your hair done. What did you want done with your hair, actually?" she asked, as though she'd just realized she didn't know yet.

"What does Quil like? You'd know better than me." I'd never really asked Quil what he liked done with my hair, but I knew Alice took notice of everything.

She tied my hair back as she answered me. "He likes you with curls. Ever since Nessie's wedding, I think. Maybe before that."

"I'm glad someone pays attention to him." I said, leaning back on the wall and closing my eyes. "I'm going to have a nap, seeing as I couldn't get back to sleep very well last night. Just kick me when you want me to wake up."

I had a power nap, but, of course, Alice was finished much quicker than she should have been. She didn't let me look in the mirror, and Nessie stepped through the door as soon as she was finished, carrying my dress over her arm. She was still in her sweat pants and t-shirt, but her hair and make-up had been done in the time she'd spent after picking us up. Huyana skipped through the door after her, her long hair falling naturally down her back and no make-up on her face.

"Shoes?" I asked Alice as she helped me hold the material off my face as Nessie and Huyana pulled it down.

"In the kitchen." she laced it up in a matter of seconds, then smoothed it out to check the fitting. "Perfect! Now sit down. I'll be finished soon."

"I'll go get my dress on." Nessie said, returning less than a minute later with Alice's dress, as well.

"Thanks." Alice grabbed the curling iron and began twisting it through my hair, pinning certain parts up when she had finished with them. "Okay! You're ready!" she pulled her dress on so quickly I wouldn't have noticed if she'd just been in my peripheral vision, then tried to smooth her hair down in the mirror. "Take a look." she grabbed my arms and pulled me in front of the mirror, grinning madly in the background.

I couldn't help myself - I burst into tears. "You made me beautiful!" I sniffed, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug. "Thank you!" I let her go and then freaked out. "Oh my God! What about my make-up!"

"It's okay." Alice said, pulling my hands from my face and dabbing under my eye with a small cloth. "It's all water-proof. I made sure." she led me into the kitchen, leaving Nessie and Huyana in the bathroom with the make-up. "Now, Claire. Not all weddings go exactly how they were planned to, okay?"

I gave her a worried look. "Why, Alice? Why are you telling me this?"

"The florist we'd hired is married...and his wife decided, after three months of deliberating, about ten minutes ago that she was, in fact, leaving him."

"What?" I shrieked, stopping in my tracks.

"Don't worry." she kept me moving. "People get divorced all the time. He won't do anything too drastic." - as if I was being selfless and worrying about the man I didn't know, not my own wedding. "It's just that his van was the one full of your wedding flowers, and he had to stop by and try to patch things up with her. He's sent his partner with lillies and frangipanis."

"Lillies and frangipanis." I repeated, feeling tears well up in my eyes again. "That's okay." I told myself outloud. "They're just flowers. We didn't need carnations and lavender. And the gerberas just wouldn't have fit..." I bit my lip and looked up, trying to get the tears to run back into my eyes. "It's _fine._"

I sat at the kitchen table while we waited for Nessie and Huyana. We were twenty minutes ahead of time, so I had a while to try and collect my nerves and stop thinking about the disastrous flowers that were probably already being set up at my wedding. Alice had offered to send someone to the nearest florist to get different flowers, but no where had the exact flowers for the arrangements I'd wanted, so I just told her not to worry about it, wallowing in my despair in silence.

Nessie and Huyana had joined us, completely done up and looking gorgeous, unsurprisingly, and my mother had just finished gushing about how beautiful I looked and how she was losing her first baby and how much she'd miss me while I was in Calirfornia, and we were just about to walk out of the door when Alice's phone rang.

"It's Jacob." she said, answering it immediately. I frowned. Jacob had only left a few minutes ago. Why would he need to speak to Alice already? "What is it?"

Her face didn't change as she listened to Jacob speak, and that had me worrying. A quick look at Nessie made it worse, as she bit her lip, then quickly composed her face. "What happened?" I asked her quietly. She shook her head and listened to the rest of the phone call.

"Well, it would be a lot easier if I could see with you guys around, wouldn't it, Jacob?" she snapped into the phone. I was relieved at the fact my mother and sister were waiting with Huyana outside. "Then they must have changed their minds, because they were just passing through last time I took any notice of them...oh, I don't know...probably your _stench!_ Look, we don't have time for this. If they've already left to take care of things, we can't do anything else. We have to get Claire there now, or she's going to have a panic attack. There's more than enough of our team at the wedding to stop two of _them_, and no one's going to get hurt. It's _fine_. Once they realize something as wrong as you wolves're there, they'll be turning and running in the opposite direction." she sighed and ended the call, turning to me and Nessie with what looked like a genuine smile. "Ready to go?"

"What was all that about, Alice?" I asked her, my butterflies getting worse and worse. I was starting to get a little scared now. That phone call didn't sound too good, and I was still stressed about the flowers.

"Nothing, Claire! Everything's fine! It'll all be okay."

"We wouldn't be getting any unexpected visitors today, would we?" I asked, biting my lip at the words that came out of my mouth.

She sighed and took my hand. "I'm sorry, Claire. From what I saw they were going to be here two days ago and weren't coming anywhere near this part of the forest, but they changed their mind last week, and I didn't want to cancel all the plans and stress you out. This wasn't supposed to happen. They only decided a few minutes ago to drop by where we are, but I know they won't come anywhere close. There's only going to be a few humans at the wedding, and they won't even be able to scope them out with all the dogs around. Brady, Paul, Jared and Emmett have gone to sort things out with them, but I doubt they'll even let them get close. They've more gone to...ward them away."

"Emmett...who was supposed to be _marrying me today?" _I said, getting louder at the end of my sentence. "Oh my God, I can't do this! We're gonna have to change the date, Alice." I sat on the nearest chair and put my face in my hands. "My friends from school are there, waiting for me! Don't you think they'll notice something's up when some of the part disappears into the forest and almost everyone else starts worrying? I'm not putting them at risk. Tell them to get out _now!"_

"No, Claire." Nessie bent down and gave me a serious look. I could see complete honesty leaking out of her wide brown eyes. "Alice wouldn't lie to you about a thing like this. Everyone's completely safe. They won't get anywhere near anyone, and if they're like others that have been dealt with in the past, they won't want to get anywhere near the guys when they go after them. If Alice says they'll turn and run in the other direction, they will. There's nothing to worry about."

I looked at the floor, swallowed and nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

I let them help me to my feet, and they held my arms while I slipped on my shoes. I was a little unsteady with both nerves and worry. "What else is going to go wrong?" I groaned to myself as Nessie walked me out to her car again with her arm around my waist.

"It's all going to be fine." she whispered into my ear. "Emmett will be back by the time you get there, and you'll be able to lose yourself in Quil's deliciousness and not worry about anything but the length of time it'll take the two of you to get to California. Did you stop for eleven days like you'd said? I'll bet Quil's wanting to get the wedding and reception over and done with as much as you are."

I slid into the back seat, being careful of my dress and put my face in my hands again, being careful of my make-up. I pulled my face out of my hands and screamed, making four of the five of my companions jump. "I forgot my bags!"

"In Quil's truck." Alice said immediately. "Yeah, I'm that good. Relax, Claire. Breathe. You have people with magic powers on their side." she winked at me in the mirror, unable to say any more in front of my mother. "I'll admit that if you had a different party - without the wonderful_ me -_ you'd be in a spot of trouble, but nothing is going to go wrong. So you've got different flowers to the ones you wanted? Who cares! They're only flowers!"

Emmett _was _back when we'd gotten there. I was now three minutes late, as Alice so practically reminded me as she touched up my make-up. Esme and Rosalie had shocked me by setting up a small path and stage out of pavings that I took time to look at - they were really, really pretty, made of a dark concrete-type substance and large, round stones and pebbles, and fit in perfectly with the forest surrounding them. I was actually surprized at how good they looked, even though I knew, deep down, I'd never be able to expect anything less from the women who had achieved it.

The flowers didn't look nearly as good as what I'd had originally planned, but they were better than I was expecting. I knew the delivery man would have been pushed away as soon as he'd arrived and the flowers would have been set up much too quickly with non-human hands. The rain from the night before in the forest had left a soothing, beautiful smell to the surrounding trees, and I breathed it in deeply, the scent reminding me of when I put my head between Quil's neck and chest and took in a deep breath.

The vampires that had considered visiting were gone from my mind when I saw Jared followed by Brady, then Paul take their seats after arriving quietly out of the deeper depths of the forest. Jared gave me an encouraging smile while Paul gave me a thungs-up, and I thanked them silently.

I slipped off my heels after everyone had seen them and left them at the start of the path. It would be a lot easier walking down without them, and I couldn't have cared less about them at that moment, with my erratic heart and tummy full of butterflies making it hard for me to concentrate much on anything other than the fact that all eyes were on me. My mother walked me down the isle, seeing as it was an impossibility for my father. She was crying more than I'd ever seen her when we stopped out the front, and I laughed quietly and gave her a tight hug. "You're being silly."

"I know." she said, kissing my forehead. "You look beautiful, Claire."

"I love you." I whispered as I released her. "Thanks, Mom."

Then, for the first time that day, I looked up, into Quil's eyes. Eyes that _told_ me that I looked more beautiful than anyone else there, without a doubt, though I'd been telling myself Nessie and Alice, and even Huyana were so far beyond what I looked like that I was disappointing myself, even after the work Alice had done on me. He took a deep breath and bit his bottom lip, his warm fingers finding my own and squeezing them softly. I didn't realize my arms were freezing until the heat of his skin touched me, but I didn't care. I loved this dress too much to start disliking it just because of the chance of my getting frostbite.

"I love you." I whispered as Emmett started speaking.

He grinned and looked as though he were about to pull me into his arms, then thought better of it, settling for squeezing my hand tighter.

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**QPOV**

I couldn't really tell what Emmett was saying, but there were a few snickers from the crowd, and a bit of blush made itself present on Claire's cheeks, even though we'd warned him to dial it down from what it was at Nessie and Jake's wedding.

But how was I supposed to listen while Claire was standing in front of me like she was, more beautiful than I'd ever seen her? It was literally impossible for me to remove my eyes from her. I tried time and time again, but couldn't succeed. From the way her bangs curled around her cheek and under her jaw to how her toes were sticking out from under the light yellow billows of her dress, she had me completely intrigued.

I managed to participate in the wedding as best I could, but it wasn't easy. I _think_ I heard Emmett mention something quietly about 'doing it doggy-style', which would explain half of the pack hunching over in uncontrollable laughter and Claire shooting him one of the worst looks I'd ever seen, but in the next moment I was too preoccupied with pulling Claire into me and holding her breathtaking face to mine as our mouths met for what seemed like the first time in a month.

"I love you more." I whispered, rubbing a tear that fell down her cheek with my thumb and squeezing her waist before letting her move a couple of inches away from me.

"Thanks, Emmett." Claire said, wrapping her arms around him.

He laughed and hugged her back. "I suppose I toned it down from Nessie and Jake's, huh? It was alright, wasn't it?"

"I'll get you back when we come home." she joked as they released each other.

We were just staying in the forest for the reception, as Alice had garunteed us the weather would be fine until sunset.

Claire looked up at me as Kelsi let her go and trotted off to flirt with the most recent wolf to phase. "You haven't stopped smiling, Quil."

"I hadn't noticed."

She laughed quietly and stood on her toes to wrap her arms around my shoulders, letting me pick her up and spin her around once. I held her instead of setting her back on her feet and kissed the corner of her eye. "So...Claire Ateara. I really, really like that."

"It rhymes..." she said, grinning. "But I think I'm just going to stick with Claire Young..."

"Whatever you want." I said after a couple of seconds of silence.

"I was kidding, Quil." she laughed as I set her back on the ground, wrapping her arms around my waist. "I wanna get out of here. Let's just leave before anyone else can get the chance to approach us."

"Look at you two." Sally said, giving the two of us a sly look before wrapping her arms around us. "I'm so proud of you! Getting up there and doing that!"

Claire rolled her eyes at the same time Cory did and Sally released us. "That pasty guy out the front with you is so _funny!_ And delicious, might I add. Is he single?"

"You're not." Cory reminded her, taking her wrist and holding it tightly.

"Oh, yeah." Sally laughed, hitting his chest lightly.

"Sorry, Sally. Even if you didn't have such a...wonderful man by your side. Emmett's taken." Claire said, motioning to the other side of the food table, where Rose had her right leg wrapped around her husband, mauling him into a surprisingly strong tree.

"So he is." Sally muttered, wrapping Cory's arm around her waist. "Let's go do the same, Cory."

"I want to do the same, too!" Claire whined, bouncing in her spot as Alice snuck up behind her.

"Ten minutes and you can leave." she said, making Claire jump. "Some of the guys just want to give you a few extra messages before you leave. I'm guessing you're not getting out of that dress?"

"Is that alright?" Claire asked, bunching her hands in the fabric. "We'll only be around people we don't know, and even if I can't fit though a couple of the doors, I want to keep it on."

"It should be fine." she said, as she hugged her. "Thank you for letting me treat you like a part of the family, Claire. I really missed it after Nessie grew up."

"Thanks for welcoming me in like you did." Claire said, kissing her cheek.

"And you!" the pixie jumped and gave me a quick hug, taking a step back as soon as she could. "Even though you smell really bad and have annoying habits like Jacob, I still love you and I'm glad my little Claire has someone like _you_ to take care of her."

"Really means a lot, Alice." I said, unable to help smirking a little.

Huyana walked slowly to us after Alice and hugged both of us at once. "Thanks for being there to make sure Quil's alright, seeing as he never sees his family anymore."

"Not true." I wrapped my arm around my mother's shoulders as she and my father joined our small party. "Besides, you guys could just as easily come and visit us."

"Give her a couple of minutes with her new parents." Emily said as her hand curled around my wrist and she attempted to pull me toward the food table, where there was a large gathering of loud natives fighting over what food they hadn't already eaten.

"Congrats, Man!" Brady said loudly, jumping on my shoulder and pulling my side down.

"Hey, cheer up, would ya? You'll be out of here before we even get to say all our goodbyes and not giving La Push a thought until you're on your way home." Seth said as I looked in the direction of Claire, who was laughing as her own mother and mine discussed something about Huyana, who had her hands covering her face in embarrassment - a rare thing for Huyana to do.

"So...eleven days, eh?" Paul asked, raising his eyebrow as Rachel hit his arm lightly. "Will you two be going out or staying in tonight?"

"Claire's getting impatient." Alice said, suddenly behind me. I turned to face my Imprint, who was ignoring poor Carter and giving me a long look with her arms crossed. She handed him her baby sister, then picked up the front of her dress and walked quickly to my side. "I want to go! We have to get to California as quick as we can!"

"Eleven days." Paul said again before filling his mouth with cake.

"Eleven days!" Claire groaned, motioning at Paul as if to say he was the only one talking sense and tugging at my hand. "Besides, I'm sick of being around all these people! I just want to be with you!"

"As romantic as that is, I'm offended." Embry said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as Alice tried to budge her way in. "Alice, Jasper looks bored. Go entertain him."

"Later," she aagreed, steering Claire away from the group and looking over her shoulder for me to follow. "Jasper and I'll drive you two to the airport. Go say goodbye to everyone quickly, or you're going to miss your flight."

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**Hope it was alright!**

**Chlowie, xo**


	73. Chapter Seventy Two

**Hey, everyone! I'm sorry again this is late. And I'm sorry again at this pitiful attempt at a chapter...hopefully you'll stick through it with me.**

**I have a little teensy bit of sad news...but I guess it's not THAT sad, because there's news after that... There's probably only going to be one chapter after this one. On this story, I mean. And I know I rambled on for some time a while ago about writing the alternative ending I had planned in another story, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but I've made up my mind! First time EVER! I'm not actually going to have that as an alternate ending, but a part 2 to this one! Which means, that if you want to keep reading this story for a little bit of drama, you can read the other one. If you want to have a nice, happy little ending with nothing to make you think: 'Oh no!', I suggest you don't read the part 2. But a little bit of drama in a story's good, right?**

**Now that **_**that's**_** over - thank you to these beautiful people: ****dreaming-of-jace, Roamin-Tigeress, bookworm1545, Asha123, Charm1997, LydLyd, stormdog11, MissingMommy, guys in my head, twilightaddict323, nessyness90210, spannieren, Robow, laurazuleta18, 0bsethed1, crayola music, AndreaElizabeth94, vampiremom1221, tonks-quinn57, AlyCullen320, MayFairy, allgirlsloveavampire, flaM1nGo, TheLovelyTruth and ShadowPix who reviewed!**

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**Chapter 72**

**CPOV**

It was almost dark when Quil and I finally arrived at the huge hotel Alice had sent us to. I was surprised at how classy it looked, even though I knew I should have expected something amazing when told the Cullens were behind it. Still, the hotel as a whole was enough to tell me I didn't belong there.

Quil helped me out of the car and wrapped his warm arm around my waist, holding me closely as he shook his head. "Didn't we tell Alice not to send us to anything like _this?"_

"Can't be that bad." I murmured into his side. It was a lot warmer here than I was used to, so I didn't stay pressed up beside him for long. My legs felt a little too warm under the bundles of yellow and white material that made up the wedding dress I didn't want to take off, and I wanted to move them to make sure they were still working properly.

We grabbed our bags out of the back of the cab and set them on the sidewalk as Quil settled things with the driver. He told us congratulations one more time, then drove off to find another customer.

The lady at the desk smiled humorously at the two of us walking to her once we'd gotten inside. We walked to our rooms slowly compared to how I'd expected. Despite carrying his bag and most of mine, Quil kept a firm grip on my hand, smiling down at me from time to time.

"What?" I asked him as he gave me a long look while opening the door to our room.

"You look really beautiful." he said honestly, forgetting about the door for a second and taking my face in his hands. "I love you." he said softly as he kissed me.

"I love you, more." I grinned, reaching out and turning the handle.

Inside was just as spectacular as the rest of the hotel, from the framed paintings on the walls, to the lace curtains hanging open at every window. There was a small balcony out the double glass doors that looked out over the street below us, and I could see lights from passing cars on the side of the hotel.

Quil shut the door behind us and I bit my lip as he walked over to me slowly. "What're we doing now?" I asked as his arms wrapped around my waist and he walked me back, into the neatly made bed.

I grinned as his mouth crashed onto mine messily and he lifted me off my feet to place me exactly where he wanted me, his arms twining around my back and lifting me off the matress to hold me to him.

"I missed this." I sighed as he pushed himself up on his arms to look at me. I leaned up quickly to peck him on the lips, then pushed myself up the bed to lay against the pillows, not thinking about Quil on top of me as much as I should have been. Both of our mouths fell open and our eyes slipped to my dress as the sound of stitches tearing filled our ears. I kicked him off desperately and jumped to my feet, running to the bathroom through the door across from where I was sitting.

I studied my dress in the mirror for a few seconds, then turned as Quil approached me, my stomach growling loudly. "No noticable damage."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, bundling handfuls of creamy yellow and white material in his hands. He pulled me forward, being careful with my dress now and kissed me softer than before.

"You're hungry."

"I haven't had anything to eat today..." I mumbled hesitantly, doing my best to look away from his deep brown eyes.

"You didn't eat? All day?" he sighed and shook his head. "Claire..."

"I didn't want to eat anything in case I magically got too fat for my dress to fit properly. I had to look beautiful!"

"You'd look beautiful anyway." he said, putting his hand on my stomach as it growled again. He grinned and took my hand. "C'mon. We'll go get dinner."

"Eleven days!" I groaned, wrapping my arms around his neck and trying to force his face down to mine. "And we're on our honeymoon! We should be naked! On that bed! Right now!" I said, pointing dramatically to the bed with the rumpled sheets in the next room.

"As...tempting as that sounds." Quil sighed, closing his eyes as his hands tightened roughly around my waist, then loosened again. "We have to get some food into you."

I pouted and slowly put my hands under his shirt, running my fingers down his toned stomach once before turning and making my way to the door of our room, not waiting for him to follow as I stepped out, into the hall.

The receptionist gave us the same look as before as we walked back out of the hotel, hand in hand, all dressed up. "Where're we going?"

"What do you feel like eating?"

"Pizza." I said after a moment.

He grinned. "Alright...are you okay?"

"I'm pissed off."

"Why?"

"You don't want to sleep with me." I said, turning the other way as we got to the main road. I could see a small pizza parlour down the street on the other side of the road and tapped my foot impatiently as I waited for the traffic to stop.

"Don't be stupid! Of course I want to sleep with you!" he said, trying to make me face him.

I smirked. "Nope. You're going to keep thinking up different excuses all night so you don't have to have sex with me."

"Oh, you're figured me out." he said sarcastically, bending down to wrap his arm around my waist and lifting me with that one arm. I gasped and wrapped my arm around his chest so I didn't feel like I was about to slip sideways and crack my head open on the road beneath us. Car horns honked at the sight of the two of us and I laughed quietly into his shirt. We got over the road and he set me down on the sidewalk, wrapping his arm around my waist now.

"Where're we headed?"

"Right there." I said, pointing before wrapping my arms around his.

We got our pizzas and left the building, walking back along the street. We found a small park a little while away from the hotel we were staying at and sat at a bench on the side of it.

"You're quiet tonight." he said as I filled my mouth with pizza.

"I'm trying to wrap my head around it." I said slowly. "We're _married!"_

He laughed and grabbed my waist, pulling me between his legs to sit against his chest. We'd chosen to sit on the table instead of the actual seat so we had more room to ourselves. I closed my eyes as his warm fingers brushed from my hair, down my neck, to my shoulder. "I love you." he whispered, hugging me tightly. "And I think I'm the happiest I've ever been right now."

"Now?" I snorted. "I could be happier...if you'd let us stay in our room."

He sighed and stood off the table, pulling me with him. "Are you full, then?"

"Yes." I said immediately.

"Let's go."

I grinned and wrapped my arm around his waist as he held me as closely as possible to his side. A group of people who looked around my age were dressed in skimpy amount of clothing outside our hotel, laughing and talking loudly. One girl with way too much make-up on looked up and waved over her head. "Congratulations!" she called loudly before all of her friends joined in. I laughed loudly and waved back at them as Quil pulled me inside with him.

"Where're we going?" I asked in a whisper as we started up the stairs. I had to step away from him as I grouped the pale yellow material in my hands and walked up the stairs carefully. I'd worn flat shoes as soon as the wedding was over, but I was still cautious not to trip over all of the material.

"I'm tired." he joked, pretenting to yawn as we got to our floor. He swept me up into his arms so quickly I didn't realize for a couple of seconds.

"Oh! You got your strength back!" I chirped, wrapping my arms around his neck and giggling.

A couple in their twenties - with _no _rings on their third fingers, might I add - passed us and the man grinned at the two of us and spoke to Quil. "I don't think they'd mind if you waited until you got closer to the door.

Quil smiled, but ignored him, walking quicker to our room. He opened the door quietly and kicked it shut behind us, watching me as I looked up at him from his arms. He dropped me in the middle of the bed, but I crawled back to the side and stood on my feet, pushing him down on the matress as he frowned at me in confusion. "What are you doing?"

I mussed his hair and kissed him softly, pulling away when his hands made themselves present on my thighs. "You've ruined plenty of my dresses in the past. You're not taking this one off me."

"I'll be gentle." he pleaded, grabbing my hands as I turned away.

I turned back to face him, laughing. "If you don't give me what I want, I'm keeping what you want!"

"Come here."

"Nope. I'll be two minutes." I promised, grabbing the small bag Alice had given me to take on the plane and locking the bathroom door behind me. I took the two minutes I'd said just taking the dress off, but finally got it done, then folded it carefully and set it on the floor beside me, as I changed into sexier underwear Alice had taken me to buy just for tonight a few weeks earlier. I took out the pinned up pieces of my hair and let it fall how it wanted, fluffing it to make it look more natural.

I picked up my dress carefully and opened the door slowly, ignoring Quil when he looked up from his place on the edge of the bed. Laying my dress as carefully as I could ontop of the wardrobe in the corner of the room.

"How do I look?" I asked him, turning around once with my hands on my hips.

"Exceptionally beautiful."

I smiled and looked at my feet. "Alice was trying to talk me into getting something a little more...revealing than usual. No chance, though. I'm sticking with this kind of thing, I think."

"I think that looks fine." he said honestly. "Now get over here, or I'm going to come and get you."

I ran to him and just about tackled him, wrapping my legs around his waist and forcing him back, into the matress as his huge, warm hands held me tightly to him; so tightly I wouldn't have been able to escape if I'd been desperate.

"I love you." I whispered breathlessly, frustrated at my shaking fingers as I tried to unbutton his shirt. "Help me!" He chuckled and wrapped his over my wrists, stopping the shaking. I worked a little slower, but threw his shirt onto the floor in a hurry. He laughed under me, which made me too confused to concentrate on what I was doing and changed our positions, again too quickly for me to realize what had happened straight away.

"Breathe." he murmured above me, grinning. "I will handle it."

"This is why I married you." I sighed.

* * *

We went to visit Peggie after a week in California. Sam, Payton, Annaliese and Alex were meeting us there for lunch with her.

"Aw, I missed you!" Sam gasped, letting go of Payton's hand and running toward us, tackling me with a ridiculously tight hug. "Did you bring photos? Samples of the cake?"

"Hey, Payton." I said, giving him a quick hug while ignoring my cousin. "I'm beginning to think you've forgotten about La Push."

"It's nice to be living away from family for a while." he said quietly. He'd been staying in a small apartment with Alex for a couple of months, so it was easier for the four of them to be together. Not to mention Alex had been having trouble with the rent...

"Peggie's impatient to see you. C'mon." Ana called from the door upstairs.

Peggie overdid lunch, of course. Quil and Payton ate just as much as everyone else put together, and Peggie kept me talking with millions of questions about the wedding. They all crowded around the two of us when I got the photos out, and Ana couldn't stop commenting on every little detail. I looked up and gave Alex a grin as he removed his hand from her waist.

Payton and Sam left halfway through the photos, walking quickly in the direction of the room Sam stayed in while at Peggie's, but my grandmother didn't seem to notice. Their relationship was doing well, then.

After an hour the two of them came back into the living room and Sam insisted we go for a walk, telling Ana she wasn't invited. We made a slow walk to a little part and the four of us sat around a small table, Quil and me on one side and Payton and Sam on the other.

"So, how have you two been?" I asked from Quil's lap as Sam teasingly traced her finger over Payton's shirt.

"Please, Samantha." Payton grinned as he took her hand and held it in his own.

She rolled her eyes at the name he'd given her and turned to answer me. "Alright, I guess. But he's getting mighty annoying..." she swatted his head jokingly and settled for wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "How about you two?"

"I suppose we're alright, too." Quil chuckled, his hand tightening on my waist. "Good to see the two of you aren't completely sick of each other."

I smiled at the two of them as they gave each other love sick faces. "We've had a couple of rough patches..." Sam admitted, giving me a small glance. "Especially with the whole wolf and Imprinting thing..."

"You told her!" I congratulated Payton loudly. "How come I didn't hear about the success afterwards?"

"How come you let your favorite relative bury herself in a relationship when she didn't know what, exactly, she was getting herself into?"

"You seemed too keen to listen to anything I had to say." I murmured, looking out at the grass in front of us. "Besides, it's against pack laws...well, not after you've been Imprinted on, but still. You wouldn't have believed me."

"Of course I would have!" she said, acting offended. "Just like you believed me when I told you I was a ninja."

I shook my head as Payton laughed loudly. It was bad enough that half the time I was talking to her, I was wondering which way her thoughts were about to go, but worst that her Imprint was only encouraging her odd behaviour.

* * *

**Next chapter will be up - cross my fingers - early next week. If it isn't, don't worry. I'm just being worn out by unnessecary school work. Blegh...**

**Chlowie, xo**


	74. Chapter Seventy Three

**Okay, first of all, I would like to apologise for taking such a long time to get this up. I really wanted to finish it weeks ago, but - and you're going to laugh when I explain - my sister's laptop (the one I had been using since mine stopped working), decided it didn't want to work anymore, as well. So, I sent mine off with my mother and she got it working again...kind of. Enough to finish this. YAY! Sorry it took so long...**

**This is the last chapter here. As I've said before, I'll probably post a second part to it (not right now, though...), so keep an eye out. :) I hope you all like this more than I do...**

**Great big thank yous to these people; ****jenizzleoffdachain, LydLyd, bookworm1545, laurazuleta18, MayFairy, Roamin-Tigeress, dreaming-of-jace, 0bsethed1, AndreaElizabeth94, twilightaddict323, stormdog11, Charm1997, Asha123, PiXiE cHiCk rainbows rock, travis, allgirlsloveavampire, MissingMommy, Originaltwifan123, E. and Jacxs17**** who rewiewed since the last chapter!**

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**Chapter 73**

I was really confused about my feelings toward returning home. It was sad to be leaving California. We'd spent a few days out in the sunshine, and it had proven to be extremely difficult to stay more than an inch away from Quil while at the beach with Sam and Payton, but the two of us were also really excited to be getting back to La Push and being around our friends and family finally as a married couple.

When we got off the plane in Seattle, it was pouring down rain; something I had unexpectedly missed in the short time we'd spent away. Quil held my hand the entire drive back to La Push, asking repeatedly if I was cold and wanted him to get me a blanket ouf ot the back of the truck. We parked the truck out the front of my mother's house before going home and she rushed outside quickly, taking me in her arms once both of my feet were on the ground.

"Oh, I missed you so much!" she said, kissing me roughly on the cheek, then moving to do the same to Quil. "How was it? Did you see Peggie? It wasn't too hot, was it? You just missed Embry. He's taken Trinity to visit his mother for the day. We weren't expecting you home this early."

"I missed you, Mom." I said as she took my free hand and pulled us inside with her.

My mother wasn't the only one overly-excited about seeing us home. Nessie and Alice made it impossible for Quil to get anywhere near me during our second day back home. They asked me millions of questions as they walked me into the mansion and Quil followed silently behind us before Emmett began to bombard him with questions, too. Some a little more suggestive than those Alice and Nessie had asked.

We ended up sitting in the living room with all of the Cullens except Bella, Edward, Rosalie and Jasper, impossibly more questions being thrown at us.

"So, now that you're back, you get your wedding present!" Alice said excitedly, clapping her hands a couple of times and bounding on her toes.

"I thought our present was the honeymoon?" Quil asked with a small frown.

"And you helped a lot with the wedding, too." I reminded her slowly.

"Those were gifts from me." she muttered so quietly I wondered if she was trying to lead me away from things we'd discussed about it all before. "We decided the two of you deserved a little something more, and I really had nothing to do with this. Well...hardly anything, anyway. Esme and Carlisle are the true culprits behind it all."

"I've been helping!" Emmett said with mock offence.

"Yes..." Alice hissed softly, shaking her head a couple of times.

"Well, whatever it is, you shouldn't have gone to the trouble -"

"Oh, Claire! You know how bored we must get!" Esme grinned. "Carlisle and I can't even go out in case we're spotted by someone who knows we should look a great deal older than what we do."

"I feel like we're being mislead." Quil pointed out, turning his attention back to Alice.

She grinned and swayed on the spot. "We've been thinking it's best if you wait. Esme only decided on it half a week ago."

"What is it?" I asked, a little worried.

"You'll see in a couple of days." Esme promised with a warm smile. I tried to smile back as best I could in response, but my head was filled with speculations about what they had been planning.

* * *

**QPOV**

Claire grinned beside me as I tucked the hair that had covered the side of her beautiful face behind her ear. "Thank you." she said, leaning forward a couple of inches to kiss me. She pulled back and closed her eyes, yawning widely. She then opened them and raised one of her eyebrows at me.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing...I was just wondering what we were doing tomorrow." she said, stretching her leg down to brush her toes agaist my knee. "I didn't have anything planned, so..."

"I have patrol tomorrow." I said sadly. "For a while, too. Jake thinks since I've been on my honeymoon, I deserve to spend the whole afternoon and night in the forest."

"I don't think that's right." Claire said, pouting adorably. "Tell him your wife has needs."

"Trust me, I've tried." I said, grinning at the thought of all the excuses I'd given him in the last twelve hours. "He won't have any of it, though."

"Jerk..." Claire mumbled bitterly. "And we had the whole house to ourselves tomorrow and everything!"

"I know. I tried to trade with someone, but they all seem set on seeing me suffer."

"I can't believe this! What am I supposed to do in a house by myself all day and night?" she asked, her voice getting higher with aggravation.

"It won't be all _day._" I promised her, taking her hands in one of mine and holding them tightly between us. "We'll make the most of our morning together, and then I'll stay with you until you fall asleep. I'll be back for you to wake up."

"I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep knowing you're going to be leaving me." she sighed, nestling into my shoulder.

"Spend the night with Nessie." I suggested. "Jake has patrol later through the night, as well, so the two of you could stay at the mansion with Alice. You never get sick of staying there."

"Maybe..." she paused to think about it, then turned her big, sulky eyes on me. "But I'd still rather spend the whole day with you!"

"Me, too." I whispered, pulling her closer and kissing her forehead as I heard a car stop in front of my house. I opened my eyes and resisted the urge to swear in annoyment.

"What is it?" Claire asked, picking up on the pissed off look on my face and turning her head to look behind her.

"Nothing." I said, loud enough for Alice to hear as her soft, graceful footsteps sounded on the path leading to the front door. Maybe she'd understand we had no intention of getting up to answer the door.

There was a loud knock on the door and Claire sighed and frowned. "Go away." she whispered, figuring it would be someone with ears well enough to hear her. Alice laughed quietly and knocked again, louder, causing Claire to roll her eyes and moan into her pillow.

"I'll get it." I suggested, climbing over her quickly and throwing my legs over the side of the bed. I kissed her head as soon as my bare feet had hit the floor and ran to the front door, opening it slower than was needed.

Alice was leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed, and impatient expression on her face as she gazed up at me. "Took you long enough."

"What is it, Alice?"

"What?" she asked in mock-offence. "A friend can't visit without so much as a friendly 'hello'?" she caught sight of my face, which told her I wasn't in the mood to be messing around and straightened up, intended on getting to the point. "Fine. Esme sent me. She's almost finished, and she wants to know if there's anything else she can do to get it up to your liking."

"What is it?" Claire asked, slightly angry from behind me. I turned with a humoured smile and grinned at her sour expression pointed toward Alice, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

"Well, if you got dressed and came with me, you might find out." Alice sighed. "I'll make you breakfast. Go have a shower and get ready."

Claire rolled her eyes and stomped off toward the bathroom, not bothering to get a change of clothes on the way.

I turned toward Alice one I was sure Claire couldn't hear me over the noise of the shower. "This is the house, right?"

"Oh, if only there was _something_ that could be kept a secret between you furry beasts." she sighed. "Yes, it's about the house. She just needs to move the furniture in and she's finished. She wanted some suggestions, but there's a bunch of magazing clippings and photographs of her ideas stuffed into a certain folder I'm beginning to get sick of." she grabbed a knife out of the top draw and pulled the fruit bowl closer to her, chopping it so quickly my tired eyes were having a hard time keeping up. "And you know what frustrates me the most about all of this? I can't see what, exactly, if going to end up inside, because apparently, you and your friends spend _way_ too much time in there." her eyes glazed over for a short moment, then she sighed and dumped all of the diced fruit into a bowl. "Well, not the whole house, anyway."

"You don't have plans for tomorrow night, do you?" I asked her before she ranted on and on about how much she hated the faults in my being. I wouldn't have been able to hold in the comments about her scent which always threatened to explode from my mouth while I was around her if she did.

"Claire's staying over?" she asked, her face immediately brightening. "That would be fantastic!" she looked as though she was strugglling for a moment, then frowned. "Huh."

"What?" I asked. "Were you checking up to make sure everything would be okay?" I asked her with a small smirk.

"Well, even after all these years, it can't hurt to be a little cautious."

"And?"

She frowned, bothered. "I don't know. I couldn't pick up on anything."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," I said as the bathroom door swung open forcefully and the furious Claire from minutes earlier stomped her way through the hall toward our bedroom to get her clothes. "You enjoy your time with her. I'm having a shower."

Half an hour later, the three of us were seated and driving in Emmett's huge Jeep. A path had not been cleared too well yet, and I knew Alice would not feel comfortable about risking her Porsche's perfect health on the uneven road. Claire yawned and nestled into my side next to me and I wrapped my arm around her cold shoulders, holding her small hand tightly in my own throughout the drive.

We drove until we were almost outside La Push and only a little while through the forest; about a five minute's walking distance from the road.

"Okay," Alice said happily, stopping between a thick patch of huge trees. "Out we get."

"Alice, this isn't where the house is." Claire said with an expression that questioned Alice's sanity. "What are we doing?"

I shushed her as Alice closed her own door, and I leant over to open Claire's for her. "Go on."

Claire followed Alice warily through the trees, jumping when Emmett burst through them and picked her up easily in his arms, slinging her onto his back. "Claire! We haven't talked in ages, you know! What do you say we leave these people to whatever they're doing and go-"

"Put her down, Emmett. You'll do what I say if you don't want Esme tearing you up." Alice said dangerously. Emmett grinned in a way I wouldn't have been able to after being confronted with a threat like that and took Claire's hand instead, pulling her through the trees. I listened closely and chuckled quietly when I heard her gasp.

She moved more quickly afterwards, and by the time I was through the trees, she was in Esme's arms, in front of a small, but tall house. "Do you like it?" Esme asked with a bright smile lighting up her face.

Claire pulled back in disbelief and gave Esme a huge smile. "It's beautiful, Esme! But you know you really shouldn't have."

"Oh, don't be silly, Claire." Esme insisted, waving her hand once. "You know how happy I've been that you're Nessie's friend. I get to do all of these things over again. It keeps me out of unbearable boredom, at any rate." she said with a small smirk. "Do you want to go for a look through it?"

Claire nodded and reached behind her to take my hand, then stood for a few more moments to get a better look at the front of the house.

There were a few steps that led up to a patio with a thick wooden railing and posts holding up the extended roof of the house. The door was another half again taller than that of a normal door, carved intricately with detailed floral patterns and painted a calming, light brown color. That same color was used with the railings and posts of the patio, and the frames around the two windows on either side of the door. The tiles on the roof were the same, but the house itself was painted white. In front of the patio, at ground level, were two unshaped garden beds, split in half by an unfinished pathway that led into the trees behind us. The lawn had not been finished, either, and had random tree stumps that had not been uprooted as of yet inhabiting certain parts. Claire sighed happily and decided she was ready to be lead inside, grinning over her shoulder at me as Esme pulled her slowly up the stairs.

The inside was abnormally tall for a house of its size, as well. I could stretch my hands up easily, and I did more times than necessary, knowing that had been Esme's intentions behind it.

We walked straight into a large living room. From outside, it hadn't looked as large as it was. I had a feeling the size of the inside would make Claire and a bunch of my closest friends think Christmas and other celebrations would be held there from time to time now.

There was a wide counter on the right side of the room that led into the kitchen, and between that and the living room, there was a particularly wide space that I guessed a table would sit in. An very tall archway had been put into the back wall of the living room, and that was where Esme dragged us, stopping to open a few doors on our way. The first was a small guest room, with a huge window opening to a beautiful view of the forest around us. She let us walk a few steps into it and smile. "This is for when you're hosting company, or...well, another addition..." she left the sentence hanging there, and I watched Claire, in case an uncomfortable air was to make itself present. Claire seemed completely relaxed as she nodded and studied the room for a few more seconds before turning and meeting the two of us back in the hall again.

A few more feet up the hall and to the left was the bathroom, which was the first room finished. I could almost see Claire drooling as she admired the extremely deep, claw-footed bathtub Esme had in the centre of the abnormally large room. The tiles on the walls were white and a light, creamy yellow, much like the color of Claire's wedding dress. There was a large sunroof in the middle of the ceiling that let through a calming light from the forest's cloudy sky.

"Oh, Esme, this is beautiful!" Claire sighed, putting her hand on her arm gently. "You're just making me feel worse and worse about this."

"Well, there's only two rooms left, so you should be feeling okay again in a short while." Esme said with a slight laugh. The next room was another guest room, a little smaller than the first with a window almost as large. Claire spent less time in this one than the others, eager to see the last door at the very end of the hall.

"This is your room." Esme said, twisting the door open and pushing it back to hit the wall.

This room was huge, as well. Almost twice the size of the first guest room. After living in cramped-up houses for my whole life, it was hard to believe I'd be living in one with more than enough room for every one of my wolf brothers and ceilings tall enough for me to be able to stretch my arms above my head.

The wall facing the back of the house had a mirror that started about three feet from the floor and two from the ceiling, but touched both ends of the wall. Through it, the three of us could see Alice and Jasper running after Emmett, both holding broken tree trunks thank had been pulled up to allow space for the house above their heads. Claire giggled, then sat down and crossed her legs where she was standing.

"I don't know what to say, Esme." she said thoughtfully, giving the vampire an overly-happy look. "I don't deserve friends like you."

* * *

**CPOV**

I'd had at least one hand on Quil since we'd woken up, dreading the minute he'd have to leave for patrol. We hadn't spent any long periods of time away from each other since being married, and the thought of him spending all afternoon and night on patrol while I was at the Cullen's mansion, trying to act happy with Alice and Nessie didn't make me want to do anything but curl up in his arms and cry. Yes, I was pathetic. But I didn't care.

"When do you finish?" I asked him for the seven thousandth time as we made our way into the kitchen for lunch, my arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

"Eight." he sighed, grabbing my right foot and giving it a comforting squeeze. Just try and sleep and I'll wake you up when I get there. But don't fall asleep too early, because you know how offended Alice gets when you don't play along and pretend you're having fun."

"No fun without you." I mumbled quietly, kissing the back of his neck. He set me up on the counter and enveloped me in his warm arms, holding me closely to his chest.

"You'll have fun without me." he promised quietly, then kissed my lips softly.

"Hmm..." I pulled back and smirked at him. "We're not making the most of what time we have left before you have to leave." I said, running my foot up the back of his leg before pulling his face back to mine roughly.

Embry cleared his throat from the living room and I turned around with a slightly murderous look on my face. "Something wrong, Em?"

"Just wanted to point out the fact that I was here." he said with an annoyed smile.

"Thanks for clearing that up for us, then." I said. He rolled his eyes, and I frowned. "What are you watching?"

"_The Price is Right_..." he mumbled, looking at his feet for a second.

"Game shows," Quil said, raising one of his eyebrows and smirking at his friend. I grinned too, and turned back to face my husband.

"I have a game." I said slowly.

"And what is it?" he whispered.

"A guessing game." I continued, looking over my shoulder at Embry to see his reaction. "What's nine and a half inches long, and begins with: _'Ah!'_"

"Okay!" Embry exclaimed, jumping up from the couch and making his way toward the door as Quil laughed and tightened his hands around my waist. "You've made your point," he said as he closed the door behind him harder than necessary.

"Oops." I smirked. "He's gonna be angry with me tomorrow."

"He'll get over it." Quil chuckled, kissing me again. We both froze when there was an eager knock at the door. Alice walked in without being invited and I groaned in aggravation at the irony.

"Esme requests your presence." she said immediately, not bothering to apologize for walking in on such a private moment.

"You're not telling me it's finished already," I said, Quil almost wiped away from my thoughts with the excitement. Almost...

She nodded once. "You forget how speedy we are, Claire! And how much Esme wanted this finished for the two of you." she grinned. "As soon as you gave her ideas about what you wanted for each room, she was sending us out to buy them. We had to go all the way into Seattle, but I wasn't complaining."

"I don't believe it." I said quietly, narrowing my eyes at her. Her smile faded a little.

"Fine, the paints still not completely dry, and there are still a few pieces of furniture to be added, but other than that it's all ready. You can see it this afternoon and move in tomorrow. Just remember not to lean up against the walls and we'll all be fine."

Quil just got out of the way as I jumped off the counter, grabbed my jacket and scarf and met Alice at the door. "C'mon!" I said excitedly, beckoning him to join us. He slipped his shoes on and took my hand as I pulled him outside with Alice leading us to Emmett's Jeep again.

"The road's a lot clearer than it was yesterday, but I'm still not risking my Porsche's health with it. Your truck'll have no problem with it, though." she jabbered as I climbed into the back with Quil following closely behind us.

Once again, she took us for the short ride through the forest and stopped behind a thick patch of trees. I took Quil's hand once we were both out of the truck and we followed Alice through the trees again. The scene on the other side of the trees was a little different from the day previous. The outside of the house still looked the same as it had, but the gardens were full of lavendar plants, as well as some larger, more colorful flowers I couldn't name. The path that had been a dirt track yesterday was now packed tightly together so the singular grains couldn't escape and mess the appealing look up, and scattered throughout it were large, round stones that looked oddly familiar. After giving my attention to them for a few seconds, I realized it they were the same stones from the path I'd fallen in love with at our wedding. I smiled at the memory and looked up just as Esme appeared in front of the three of us. "What do you think?"

"Esme, how did you know about the path?" I almost whined, hugging her tightly. "It all looks so perfect!"

"Want to see the inside?' she asked with a content smile.

I nodded eagerly and let her take my hand and pull me inside, Quil trailing along just behind us. The entire inside of the house, except for the bathroom, had been floored with extremely thick, cream colored carpet. I kicked my shoes off immediately, pulling my socks off with my toes and dug them into it as quickly as I could. There was a large black leather sofa in the centre of the room facing a huge television. I wanted to object to all the furniture that had appeared in the house unexpectedly since the day before, but I knew Esme would just ignore my complaints. The walls in the living room were a light brown color that looked like it had been created to match the cream of the carpet. When selecting the colors from the folder Esme had shown me, I hadn't thought it would look that good.

The first guest room, the larger one, was light pink in color, and had a single bed against the wall, under the huge window. There were thin curtains hanging in front of the window made from a material the exact shade of the carpet and lined with pink lace. A white chest of draws were on the other wall and a desk of the same color sat beside the bed, holding a small reading lamp, its shade hand made with pink and white floral material.

The next guest room had the same things in it, but the walls had been painted blue. The bed was the same, but was facing the window instead of lying underneath it, and was covered with a blue knit blanket instead of a pink comforter. The window had no curtains, and looked into a particularly beautiful part of the forest, the main tree in the view smaller than the others around it with incredibly thick, bright green leaves.

Our bedroom was the one room I was almost screaming with excitement to see. Esme said she'd already had plans for it, so we didn't voice too much, not wanting to offend her in anyway. All we'd said was thick, light yellow carpet. I was only just realizing how important the simple color was to us.

Quil opened the door with his other hand wrapped around my waist, and I gasped in amazement. "Oh, Esme, it's absolutely beautiful!" I said, reaching behind to take her hand in mine. "You're a genius."

"Are you sure there's enough in there? You would have another set of draws in there, as well as a couch, but I know you didn't like me giving you a heap of furniture." she said, a little uneasily.

"It's fine." I said quietly.

Quil's hand tightened around my waist a little, then he turned to Esme. "I thought we'd agreed that we'd just bring my bed from the old house?"

"Yes, but I thought the mahogany of this bed would match the chest of draws, wardrobe and mirror." Esme sighed. "Besides, this one's bigger than yours, so you'll be able to stretch out more while you're sleeping."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Esme." I said before Quil could say anything else. I was in a revieving mood.

She smiled at me and gave me a gentle hug. "I'm glad you like it." she said to the two of us, taking a few steps back. "Well, it'll be ready for you tomorrow. I thought you wouldn't mind tonight, seeing as Claire's staying with us anyway." she grinned at us. "We have to go home and do some things. You can take a while to have a look around." And then she disappeared.

Quil still looked as though he was thinking of ways to give the bed back to Esme, so I gave him a small smile and dragged him over to it, lowering myself right in the centre and crossing my legs.

He sat down in front of me and took both of my hands. "We're really not going to be able to say thank you for all of this." he said uneasily, glancing around the room. The two of us had grown up with a small amount of money, but he'd always had it worse than I had, with a sibling and only his father working. Plus, I'd grown up around the Cullens, who were always more than willing to lend or give anything they had to offer.

"Let it go." I told him as his fingers traced patterns in my palms. "They like doing this kind of thing for people."

"Still...it's not right. We're never going to be able to pay them back." he sighed.

I shook my head slowly and put my face on his shoulder. "I don't think they'd mind, Quil."

We were silent for a few minutes, then I pulled away from him and kissed his cheek. "Thank you." I said as a tear slid down my cheek.

"For what?" he asked as concern filled his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said with a small laugh, shaking my head. "Absolutely nothing. That's what it is?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, looking a lot more relieved now.

I bit my lip as I thought of how to explain it to him. "Well...my life's perfect. It's all exactly how I could ever want it." I said, looking down at our hands as I spoke. "I have you, and...pretty much everything..." I sniffed, and laughed at my ow stupidity. "I don't know, Quil. I just...I love being me."

"Yeah," he sighed, pulling me around so I was leaning back, into his chest. "Life must be pretty awesome when you're married to me."

"I guess you're alright," I smirked, tilting my head up automatically and meeting his lips halfway.

* * *

**I know. I fail. I just couldn't finish it! Oh well. That's what you get. I hope it was okay to some people.**

**I would also like to give a huge thank you to anyone who read, reviewed or added this story to their favourites and alerts lists. It really means so much to me that I could explode. If you hadn't been there, none of this would have ever happened to Claire and Quil, so they owe you, too. :)**

**Still heaps for them to come kooked up in my head, so hopefully one day it will all be out and in my account along with this. I want to get some other things out of the way, though. You're all very welcome to dedicate some time to reading them, as well!**

**So...thank you, again. I love you all! :)**

**Chlowie, xo**


	75. Thank You

_Hey guys! I just wanted to post a thank you message to everyone who's still following this story, as well as the people who take the time to favourite and review. I can't believe this story is still getting all the attention it is - I didn't ever expect it to be such an appeal to people, and it's definitely been the busiest of all my stories. I still get excited every time I see an email to let me know people are taking the time to show me their appreciation!_

_I've had a break from Twilight for a few years, but I'm straight back into it with another imprint story, which I actually started working on back when I was posting this story. I've re-written it a few times now and I'm so excited to finally have it up. I promised quite a few of my reviewers from this story it was on the way - my Seth story! I doubt I ever would have taken the time to keep working on it if Quil and Claire hadn't caught the interest of so many people. _

_Hope to hear from even more reviews to come! I try to reply to everyone I can and can't even express how much it means to me._

_Thank you, so much._

_Chlowie, xo_


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